Alexander Volkov wants his shot at gold after taking out Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC 328.
Across three rounds, Volkov fought with a smart game plan as he chipped away at Cortes-Acosta from the outside and just never let him get going with his big looping punches. From kicks to the body and legs or landing with his lead jab, Volkov was just connecting with strikes more often and Cortes-Acosta struggled to find a home for his best shots throughout the fight.
When it was over the judges scored the fight 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 with Volkov getting the unanimous decision win.
“I just want to say a very important thing right now, my country is very important holiday,” Volkov said afterwards. “It’s a day of victory of World War II. It’s a big honor for me to fight today and win. I know you don’t like heavyweight fights that don’t come to a finish but Waldo’s a tough motherf*cker. He’s so good. It was a lot of danger.
“Now real talk, [Ciryl] Gane, I beat him before, the judges robbed me. [Alex] Pereira is not a heavyweight. I should fight for this title. Give me the title shot, it doesn’t matter.”
Volkov opened with a series of kicks to the legs and body to use his reach advantage while Cortes-Acosta was tossing out a solid lead jab as he looked to close the distance. As Volkov kept chipping away with kicks, Cortes-Acosta charged forward with a barrage of punches but he couldn’t connect before the Russian circled away again.
With less than a minute remaining in the opening round, Cortes-Acosta finally connected with a slick combination that landed on the chin but Volkov reacted well to avoid any further damage.
Cortes-Acosta started throwing with more confidence as he attacked Volkov with good striking combinations and his right hand landed repeatedly. Volkov was still mostly concentrating on his kicks and rarely throwing a punch in return.
Showing frustration, Cortes-Acosta started demanding that Volkov stand and trade with him and he paid for that decision. Volkov clipped Cortes-Acosta with a slick left hand that rattled “Salsa Boy” and sent him wobbling back towards the cage.
While Volkov wasn’t really able to follow up, he clearly had Cortes-Acosta hurt with arguably the best shot of the fight. A late jab followed by a kick right up the middle that dug into Cortes-Acosta’s body let Volkov really show off the variety of his striking attacks.
With five minutes remaining, Cortes-Acosta started pushing the pace more realizing a finish may be needed to get the win. He landed a couple of thudding shots but Volkov quickly countered with a stiff jab that evened the score.
Cortes-Acosta was finding a home with his punches as Volkov started to slow down but the veteran heavyweight still managed to fire back with another kick to the body. Another flurry from Cortes-Acosta came just before the fight ended, although Volkov avoided anything connecting clean.
While not the emphatic finish he surely wanted, Volkov showed there’s still levels to the top of the heavyweight division by stopping Cortes-Acosta’s three-fight win streak. Volkov is now 6-1 in his past seven fights with his only loss coming in a controversial split decision to Ciryl Gane in 2024.
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