{"id":949986,"date":"2026-10-29T00:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T00:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/949986\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T00:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T00:12:10","slug":"stipe-miocic-backs-alexander-volkov-to-win-ufc-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/949986\/","title":{"rendered":"Stipe Miocic backs Alexander Volkov to win UFC gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 2-ranked<\/a> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Alexander Volkov continued his march toward a long-awaited title shot by defeating Rizvan Kuniev via unanimous decision at UFC 333<\/a> this past weekend (Sat., Oct. 24, 2026) inside Etihad Arena on \u201cFight Island\u201d in Abu Dhabi, UAE.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Volkov is trapped in Heavyweight no-man\u2019s-land.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old has done more than enough to challenge for the title, but several moving pieces could once again leave him on the outside looking in. If former champion Tom Aspinall returns soon, he will almost certainly be placed ahead of Volkov<\/a>. And if Heavyweight newcomer Alex Pereira knocks out Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335<\/a>, \u201cPoatan\u201d could use his star power to leapfrog the Russian contender.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Volkov has a major endorsement from retired former Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, who believes \u201cDrago\u201d has everything necessary to capture UFC gold if he finally receives the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201dVolkov has fought everyone. He\u2019s super tough,\u201d Miocic told casino.org\/canada<\/a> recently. \u201cI\u2019ve always watched him and I\u2019ve always rooted for him. I\u2019m glad I never fought him, but I think if he gets the opportunity to become champion, he\u2019ll get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s quick and it\u2019s not like he goes into fights and gets smoked,\u201d Miocic continued. \u201cI think he just does it his own way, and I think he\u2019s right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, \u201cDrago\u201d has rattled off three consecutive victories and is now 7-1 across his last eight appearances, with that disputed Gane decision serving as his only official loss during that stretch.<\/p>\n

At 38 years old, Volkov cannot afford to wait forever. But after nearly a decade of fighting everyone UFC has placed in front of him, Miocic believes one title opportunity may be all the Russian needs.<\/p>\n

For complete UFC 333 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 2-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Alexander Volkov continued his march toward a long-awaited title shot by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,322511,139445,702,7788],"class_list":["post-949986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-333","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}