Alexander Volkov is trying to make fun of his heavyweight title snub by sarcastically supporting Josh Hokit getting the nod against Ciryl Gane instead due to believing he is, ‘mentally ill’.

The 37-year-old Volkov has been fighting in the UFC for 10 years and has won six of his last seven fights, leaving him ranked No.2 on the UFC media rankings (no.4 on the meta AI rankings), while Hokit has only been in the UFC for a year and has won all four of his bouts in the Octagon so far, but it only placed at No.6 on both ranking systems.

As such there’s plenty of reason for Volkov to be frustrated that he’s not getting to fight current champion Ciryl Gane next instead of Hokit, but he’s doing his best not to let it get to him.

“I very support this fight from the UFC. I have a lot of reasons that this fight should happen,” Volkov deadpanned to Ariel Helwani on his show this week. “Josh Hokit, what I know about him, he has a- clearly dealing with something mental illness. So, it’s very admirable for the UFC to put the guy with a serious mental condition to title shot. So, of course, he should go in front of me.

“You know, guys with this kind of reason should fight first. For him, it’s not possible, I think, in my opinion, to beat somebody in top five right now. So, this is the easiest way to American heavyweight to get title shot right now. It’s an incredibly inspiring story of the guy with a mental illness who can fight for heavyweight title. I very support UFC with that and it’s a very noble thing.”

Of course it was only a matter of time before the outspoken Hokit responded to Volkov’s verbal jab at him.

“Maybe he should catch my ‘mental illness’ since he lost to the last 2 guys I beat,” Hokit wrote on social media.

“Has anyone ever watched a Volkov fight all the way through? He’s lucky to still be on the roster.

“Should have cut his boring a– when they cut [Jailton] Almeida.”