A heavyweight rematch between Ciryl Gane
and Alexander
Volkov will no longer take place at UFC 308
as originally anticipated.
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Volkov recently announced that he suffered a knee injury, which
forced him to withdraw from the event. La Sueur was first to report that the fight was off
the UFC 308 bill. While the French outlet revealed that the
heavyweight bout was postponed to UFC 310,
that has not been finalized, according to MMAFighting.com. UFC 308 takes place at Etihad
Arena in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 26 and is headlined by a featherweight
championship clash between Ilia
Topuria and Max
Holloway.
“I have to inform you that my fight on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi is
canceled due to my knee injury,” Volkov wrote on Instagram. “I will
try to return to the gym and fight as soon as possible.”
Gane and Volkov initially squared off in the main event of UFC
Fight Night 190 in June 2021, with the Frenchman winning a
five-round unanimous decision.
A former interim heavyweight king, Gane has twice come up short in
bids for the undisputed belt, falling to Francis
Ngannou via unanimous decision at UFC 270 and to Jon Jones via
first-round submission at UFC 285. “Bon Gamin” rebounded from the
loss to Jones by scoring a second-round TKO triumph against
Serghei
Spivac at UFC Fight Night 226 this past September.
A former Bellator
MMA and M-1 Global
champion, Volkov has yet to challenge for UFC gold since joining
the promotion in 2016. The 35-year-old Russian has won his last
four outings, including a three-round verdict over former training
partner Sergei
Pavlovich at
UFC on ABC 6 on June 22.