This is the UFC 321 live blog for Alexander Volkov vs. Jailton Almeida, the main card heavyweight bout Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Volkov stands tall at No. 3 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, with Almeida a few spots behind at No. 7.
Were it not for a controversial split decision loss to Ciryl Gane, it might be Volkov (38-11) fighting for the title in Saturday’s main event. That result snapped a four-fight win streak for Volkov, but he can get right back into the No. 1 contender discussion
with a win over Almeida. During his winning run, Volkov scored victories over ranked heavyweights Sergei Pavlovich, Tai Tuivasa, Alexander Romanov, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
Almeida (22-3) rebounded from his first UFC loss (a KO at the hands of Curtis Blaydes) to record back-t0-back fast finishes of Romanov and Serghei Spivac. That’s now six first-round finishes in eight UFC wins for Almeida, who has gone do the scorecards just twice in his 25-fight career.
Check out the UFC 321 live blog for Alexander Volkov vs. Jailton Almeida below.
Preamble
Barring a borefest, this has to put one of these men in line for a title shot. Almeida has shrugged off the Lewis win and the Blaydes loss that hurt his stock, and Volkov should have won that decision over Gane. Let’s keep the heavyweight line moving, please.
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
