A heavyweight fight between Sergei Pavlovich and Alexander Volkov has been revealed as the co-main event for UFC On ABC 6 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 22nd.
It’s an unexpected booking given that just a couple of days ago an announcement suggested that Volkov would be fighting Jailton Almeida at UFC 302 on June 1st, but it seems that plan has now been scrapped.
The 31-year-old Pavlovich went on a destructive rampage up the UFC’s heavyweight ranks over a four-year period beginning in April of 2019, winning six fights in a row inside of the first round via either KO or TKO.
He wasn’t just beating up lower-tier talents either as the likes of Curtis Blaydes, Tai Tuivasa and Derrick Lewis all fell victims to his thunderous punching power during that period.
That set him for an interim-heavyweight title fight against Tom Aspinall at UFC 295 in November last year, where his winning streak came to an abrupt end courtesy of a 69 second KO finish from Aspinall.
That leaves Pavlovich ranked No.3 heading into his next fight against fellow Russian fighter Volkov, who is currently placed at No.6 on the heavyweight ladder.
The 35-year-old Volkov is currently in the midst of a three-fight winning streak, having TKO’d both Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Alexander Romanov, followed by an ezekiel choke submission of Tai Tuivasa.
Pavlovich vs. Volkov will serve as the lead-in to a UFC On ABC 6 headline featuring a middleweight clash between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker in what will be the UFC’s first ever event in Saudi Arabia.
