On December 7, the final tournament of this year, UFC 310, took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. For Russian fans of mixed martial arts, all attention was focused on two fights – Movsar Evloev with Aljamain Sterling and Alexander Volkov with Cyril Gan. On his second attempt, Evloev met the former UFC bantamweight champion and defeated him by unanimous decision, but Volkov could not take revenge from the Frenchman, to whom he lost for the first time in 2021.

Alexander believes that his victory was stolen from him!

Volkov believes he won the fight

The fight between Volkov and Gan lasted all three rounds and ended in a split decision. The fight took place without a clear advantage of any of the fighters, but the judges eventually gave the victory to the Frenchman (29:28, 28:29, 29:28). This defeat was the fifth for Alexander Volkov in the UFC and the 11th in his career. After the end of the fight, the Russian left the octagon with a dissatisfied expression on his face, and then met with UFC head Dana White in the arena hall. After a conversation with the functionary, Volkov, without changing his facial expression, which clearly showed his dissatisfaction, left the hall in Las Vegas.

— Thank you all for your support. I’m just confident that I won this fight. I gave it my all in camp, I gave it my all in battle. I’m sure I won the fight. Thanks again to everyone who supports me. I don’t know what can be done about this. Backstage, the UFC bosses approached me, the biggest boss… Everyone thinks it was the wrong decision. I’m still emotional, but I won the fight 100%. Where the judges looked, who judged at all, I don’t know. Thank you again,” Volkov said after the fight.

Interestingly, White even apologized to Volkov.

– I believe that Volkov won the fight. You saw what happened after the fight. You heard the roar of the crowd. I approached Volkov after the fight and apologized. I think he won,” White said at a press conference.

Alexander Volkov and Cyril Gan / Photo: © Steve Marcus / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Volkov suggested why one of the judges gave victory to his opponent

During the press conference, Volkov spoke about the judge’s assessment of Adelaide Bird, who gave the victory to his opponent – 29:28. In 2017, she condemned Gennady Golovkin after his fight with Mexican Saul Alvarez. Then Bird gave the victory to Alvarez with a score of 118:110. And before the fight between Vasily Lomachenko and Nicholas Walters, the Ukrainian’s promotion company Top Rank sounded the alarm immediately after Bird was appointed as a judge for this fight.

“I don’t know if she’s working on her refereeing skills or if she just comes to watch fights sometimes because she likes it.” Maybe she liked Gan’s body better. My respect to Cyril. He simply left the cage after the decision was announced, because he also did not feel this victory.

I don’t want to say anything bad about him, I just don’t agree with the judges’ decision. “I can’t agree with them,” Volkov said during a press conference after the UFC 310 tournament.

For Alexander Volkov, this defeat was one of the painful ones. He cannot understand how the fighter who took more damage could win the fight. In addition to Volkov and the tournament organizers, the judges’ decision was also criticized by fans who gathered in Las Vegas. They raised a deafening roar after the results were announced. Nevertheless, the main question remains open – why did judges Adelaide Bird and Junichiro Kamiho give the first and second rounds to the Frenchman, and not to Alexander?

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