While mixed martial arts fans are counting the days until the UFC's 300th anniversary event, the promotion's management is already making plans for the summer. And he pays special attention to the first ever show in Saudi Arabia, which is scheduled to take place on June 22 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Already at the end of March, a significant part of the event program became known, and the participants included three Russians at once - and this does not take into account the native of Chechnya, Khamzat Chimaev, now representing the UAE. At the same time, two of the domestic fighters will fight each other, and the third will measure his strength with the Ukrainian. Given the current geopolitical situation, this seems incredible.
However, the main event is still seen as a duel between two Russian heavyweight stars - Sergei Pavlovich and Alexander Volkov. Currently, both are in the top 6 of the rankings, but are not among the main contenders for the trophy. Both suffered their last defeats from Tom Aspinall, but if the first lost to the Englishman in the fight for the interim belt in November 2023, then the second - already in March 2022. And even though he has won three victories in a row since then, he has never returned to the championship race.
Therefore, domestic fans may be a little offended, because two Russians will meet in the octagon in a fight that will not bring them anything truly valuable. For example, the same Volkov previously declared his readiness to fight with Pavlovich only if either the title or the title of the first contender was at stake.
“I have a good relationship with Sergey, and it would not be very comfortable to fight with him, because we communicate well and helped each other in preparation. But the only question is this... You need to be ready to oppose any opponent,” Volkov told Metaratings in September 2023.
According to Pavlovich, he also never had a desire to fight with his compatriots, although he had previously had such experience in the American League. In March 2022, he crushed Shamil Abdurakhimov at UFC Fight Night 204 and extended his streak of early victories in the first round. By the way, it was on that show that Alexander lost to Aspinall.
By the way, throughout the history of the UFC, Russians have met each other several times. This first happened at the Moscow tournament in November 2019, where Rustam Khabilov and Sergei Khandozhko clashed, after which the paths of other compatriots crossed several more times. Moreover, the matchmakers did not stop bringing athletes together even after the start of the Special Military Operation (SVO) in Ukraine, although the Western public could well have a negative attitude towards this kind of fight.
However, from that moment on, not only Pavlovich and Abdurakhimov, but also Aliaskhab Khizriev and Denis Tyulyulin and Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Gadzhi Omargadzhiev managed to fight among themselves. Let the latter then begin to fight under the Turkish flag.
It is all the more surprising that Pavlovich’s duel with Volkov was not initially planned. Moreover, Alexander already had a fight scheduled for June - with Jailton Almeida at the UFC 302 tournament in Rio de Janeiro. But suddenly it was cancelled, and Sergei became his opponent. And this stumped not only Drago himself, but also his team.
“We are very surprised by this news. Sasha found out about this at night, I found out in the morning. This came as a surprise to us. We said that we were ready to take any fight, but in the case of Pavlovich, we are ready to fight for the belt. Our managers are now understanding the situation,” Volkov’s coach Taras Kiyashko told Metaratings.
The Russian MMA community was also not happy about the idea of pitting Pavlovich and Volkov in a regular fight. Dissatisfaction with the matchmakers' decision was expressed by both RCC head Nikolai Klimenko and ex-Bellator champion Andrei Koreshkov, who had previously been able to fight his compatriots in the cage twice. However, the duels with Mukhamed Berkhamov and Rustam Khabilov never took place.
“Not the most pleasant fight. Two of our compatriots are meeting. They trained together. Let's see a classic stand-up confrontation. One is long-armed and the other will look for close to mid range. Alexander will try to restrain Sergei. Anthropometry is on his side. He is not as explosive, his punches are not as powerful as Pavlovich’s. But in the heavyweight division, both have enough strength for a knockout. Alexander will also focus on kicks, trying to keep them at a distance and knock them down. I will give preference to Volkov - victory on points, or early. He will win if he doesn’t run into a bad throw,” Sport-Express quotes Koreshkov.
But the idea of Dana White and the company to pit Sharabutdin Magomedov and Igor Lost against each other was perceived even more strangely. And it’s not just about which countries the athletes represent. After all, victory will not bring virtually any dividends to the Russian. During his career, the Ukrainian had five fights under the auspices of the UFC, but prevailed in only two - first he dealt with 41-year-old Mauricio Rua, and then he dealt with promotion debutant Robert Bryzek.
One can only guess what the bosses of the organization were guided by when organizing this duel in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps by doing so they want to demonstrate that sport is outside of politics, and even fighters from conflicting countries can meet in the octagon. But are all participants in this fight capable of abstracting themselves from external factors and focusing exclusively on the fight? Former M-1 Global champion Vyacheslav Vasilevsky has doubts.
“I’ve never heard of Igor Lost, I’ve never even heard that last name. I don’t think this fight will give Sharabutdin anything in terms of media. What will their conflict look like? If Igor provokes Shara on ethnic grounds in connection with military operations, then this is not a very good story. These are not militant provocations. Strange fight. I haven’t heard anything about Loss, and I don’t think Shara needs this fight. I don’t see any advantages for Magomedov other than going out and defeating Igor,” Vasilevsky said.
Perhaps the UFC management was not too pleased with Shara Bullet’s performance in the battle with Bruno Silva, as a result of which they did not immediately put him against top opponents. But was it worth playing the card of confrontation between Russia and Ukraine? In an ideal situation, fans will be in for an interesting stand-up fight, otherwise it risks becoming one of the darkest in recent memory and ending in a loud scandal.
In turn, the crown of the show in Saudi Arabia promises to be the battle for the title of first contender for the middleweight title. The name of Dricus Du Plessis's future opponent will be determined in the fight between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev, who, apparently, has given up trying to fit into the welterweight category. The last time he made such an attempt was in September 2022, but was not successful and was forced to fight not with Nate Diaz, but with Kevin Holland. And after that he fought with Kamaru Usman - also at 84 kg.
It is noteworthy that the winner of that fight should have received the right to compete for the trophy in the middle category, but then White did not keep his word given on the air of the Pat McAffee show. Apparently, the reason for this was not the brightest performance of Chimaev, who only gained the upper hand over Usman, who came out on short notice, only by a judicial decision. And in the third round he was completely tired and looked noticeably worse than his counterpart. Now Khamzat will have the opportunity to prove that that mini-failure was just an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances.
But Whittaker shouldn’t be written off. Yes, he is not such a star fighter as Usman, but he has achieved tremendous success in the middle division and not only works well in the stand-up, but also defends well against passes to the legs (82%). And if Chimaev fails to drag the ex-champion to the ground, he may well face serious problems.