“Drago” is ready to show off his entire skillset.
On paper, Volkov vs. Almeida is a classic striker vs. grappler showdown — Almeida brings a world-class ground game, while Volkov is one of the division’s most polished strikers. Still, don’t expect “Drago” to shy away from grappling exchanges. He’s actually looking forward to proving how well-rounded he’s become.
““His style is pretty understandable to me. He doesn’t hide it,” Volkov told UFC.com. “He’s going to do his jiu-jitsu, ground and wrestling game, that’s it. So I’ve prepared for this. It’s a good opportunity for me to show my ground and wrestling skills. I like that he gave me this opportunity to train my grappling more. It’s a great opportunity to show the world that I have good wrestling and jiu-jitsu too.”
While Volkov is best known for his knockout power, he’s no stranger to submissions — boasting four career wins by tapout, including a rare Ezekiel choke over Tai Tuivasa (watch highlights). Still, with 24 knockouts on his resume, Volkov believes this one ends the way most of his fights do — violently.
“I think there is a big chance to knock him out,” Volkov said. “I feel like I’ll have a lot of opportunities for this. But whatever happens will happen — it’s a fight, it’s Heavyweight. But there will be a lot of chances to knock him out.”
The 38-year-old Russian is coming off a controversial robbery loss to Ciryl Gane last December, which snapped his four-fight win streak that included three impressive finishes.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 321 fight card, starting with the ESPN+/Disney+/FX “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET, before the main card start time at 2 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).
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