“If Pavlovich attacks me in the hotel, I’ll call the police” – Alexander Volkov

Russian heavyweight Alexander Volkov, who won the co-main event of the evening at the UFC tournament in Saudi Arabia against Sergei Pavlovich, commented on the incident that occurred after the fight.

Immediately after the fight, Pavlovich pushed Volkov away, who tried to encourage his opponent and shake his hand. Volkov and Pavlovich had previously been sparring partners and trained together in Moscow. Volkov, ranked fifth in the heavyweight division, defeated Pavlovich by decision of the judges, who was ranked third in the top 15 before the fight.

— Why do you think Sergei did this?

— In my opinion, it was an ugly act. I would like to understand why exactly it happened. Perhaps he misunderstood something, but in that case it is his problem, not mine. What surprised me was that for the first time in my life I heard Sergey swear, I had never heard him do that before. I could do it, but not him. But on my side there are no problems, and let people judge him.

– If you meet at the hotel now?

– If he attacks me at the hotel, I will call the police.

— Still, which of you was the first to accept the fight?

— I learned about this fight from my coach Ronnie. When he called me, he was sitting with Sergey Pavlovich’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, they are friends. And we all learned about it from Dana White’s announcement. But when my coach in Moscow contacted Sergey’s team in the morning, according to them, Sergey had already been offered this fight. Even before the announcement. And Sergey said that if Volkov agrees, then I won’t back down either. And the UFC came to me and said: “Sergey agrees if you will.” Ali approached me with a proposal to cancel the fight, but they had already agreed, and I don’t consider this a refusal. Therefore, Sergey needs to sort it out with his team or write to me directly. And one more thing: Sergey came to me for training, we helped him, and I treated him like a comrade, wanting him to get to the belt. He was preparing with us for the fight with Lewis, and I copied Lewis’s style as much as possible. And he should have been a little more grateful to us, and not put me in a situation where I couldn’t refuse,” a Match TV correspondent reports Volkov as saying.

Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on the Match TV and Match! Fighter TV channels, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.

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