Team Alexander Volkov Says UFC Management ‘Doesn’t Consider’ Ciryl Gane as Title Contender Due to UFC 310 ‘Robbery’

Despite a razor-close fight against Ciryl Gane, Alexander Volkov believes he had done enough to get the win. However, the judges thought differently, awarding Gane the victory. This decision hasn’t sat well with Volkov’s camp, who have now claimed that the UFC management doesn’t see Gane as a legitimate title contender. 

Following the loss, Volkov’s manager put out a statement saying,

“The whole UFC management agreed that Alexander won. The judge known for controversial decisions in boxing left a stain in this story as well. But we are thankful to the UFC management, they informed us that despite the ‘robbery’, Volkov is a title contender, not Gane.”

 

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Unfortunately, horrible calls from the judges have become part and parcel of the UFC. While it leaves the fans upset for a few hours or maybe days, for the fighters, it ruins months and years of hard work for the fighters.

In Volkov’s case, he was on a four-fight win streak before this loss to Gane. But now he has to start from square one all over again, in order to challenge for the title. 

The decision was also questioned by UFC president Dana White, who made it no secret that he thought Volkov had won the fight and convincingly so.

However, at this point, there is nothing Volkov can do other than potentially appeal the decision. Unfortunately, appeals almost always never overturn the result of a fight. 

Volkov blames error-prone judge 

Three years after his first loss to Ciryl Gane, Volkov believed he had done enough to secure the win in their rematch. As did everyone who watched the fight.

While fans took their disappointment to Twitter, Volkov took to the post-fight presser to claim that he had outworked Gane, delivering more damage and controlling key moments of the fight.

Make no mistake, Gane displayed improved grappling and submission attempts, but Volkov’s striking and positional dominance on the ground should have sealed the win.

Even Gane’s team, according to Volkov, seemed surprised by the decision.

 

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What frustrated Volkov even more was learning that one of the judges, Adalaide Byrd, had been involved in other controversial decisions, including the infamous Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin draw in 2017.

Judge Byrd’s 118–110 in favor of Álvarez was widely criticized at the time. Golovkin had fought a closely contested fight, which made the scorecard with this big a gap in performance seem like the judge was watching a different fight altogether.

Volkov brought this into question and asked how someone could judge two different combat sports without proper expertise.

However, despite the disappointment, he took some solace in Dana White’s support, who agreed that he should have won and apologized to him.