Ex-Bellator champ Alexander Volkov debuts with promotion vs. Timothy Johnson at UFC Fight Night 99

Alexander Volkov

The UFC has another new heavyweight in its ranks – and he’s a former Bellator champion.

Alexander Volkov (26-6 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has signed with the UFC, a promotion official today confirmed to MMAjunkie, and will meet Timothy Johnson (10-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 99 in November in Northern Ireland.

UFC Fight Night 99 takes place Nov. 19 at SSE Arena in Belfast, and the entire card streams on UFC Fight Pass, though the bout order hasn’t been finalized. It’s the first of two cards on Nov. 19; UFC Fight Night 100 takes place later in the day in Brazil.

Fighting exclusively in Russia and the Ukraine through the first 19 fights of his pro career, Volkov signed with Bellator in 2012 and ran the table in the promotion’s Season 7 heavyweight tournament to become its first heavyweight champ. He took a decision from Brett Rogers at Bellator 75 in the quarterfinals, knocked out Vinicius Queiroz at Bellator 80 in the semifinals and took a unanimous decision from Richard Hale at Bellator 84 in December 2012 to win the belt.

But in his first defense, 11 months later at Bellator 108, he was stopped by Vitaly Minakov with a first-round TKO and surrendered his belt. He bounced back by winning the Season 10 heavyweight tournament, which should have earned him a title shot against Minakov. But Cheick Kongo was ahead of him in line, and lost to the champ at Bellator 115. Volkov never got another crack at Minakov – who was stripped of his title after not defending it for two years, but fighting elsewhere.

Minakov dropped a split decision to Tony Johnson at Bellator 136 in April 2015, then lost a decision to Kongo at Bellator 139 and subsequently was released from the promotion. But he bounced back this year with a submission win over Denis Smoldarev at M-1 Challenge 64 to win that promotion’s heavyweight title, then in June knocked out Attila Vegh to defend it.

With the addition, the latest UFC Fight Night 99 card now includes:

• Dong Hyun Kim vs. Gunnar Nelson
• Ian McCall vs. Neil Seery
• James Krause vs. Ross Pearson
• Amanda Cooper vs. Anna Elmose
• Mark Godbeer vs. Justin Ledet
• Timothy Johnson vs. Alexander Volkov

For more on UFC Fight Night 99, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.