Roy Nelson meets ex-Bellator champ Alexander Volkov at UFC on FOX 24 in Kansas City

The UFC’s debut in Kansas got a little bit bigger today – by about 520 pounds – with the addition of a heavyweight fight to the lineup.

Roy Nelson (22-13 MMA, 9-9 UFC) will take on former Bellator champion Alexander Volkov (27-6 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at UFC on FOX 24, the promotion today announced.

UFC on FOX 24 takes place April 15 at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. The main card airs on FOX following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

After a skid that saw him drop five of six fights, Nelson has won two of his past three. His lone loss in that stretch was a close split-decision setback to Derrick Lewis at UFC Fight Night 90 this past July. Sandwiched around that is a decision win over Jared Rosholt, and this past September, a second-round knockout of Antonio Silva in Brazil.

Nelson’s UFC record sits at .500, but his losses in the promotion have come against heavyweight elite: All but two – Lewis and Mark Hunt – have come against current or former champions in the UFC or Strikeforce: Junior Dos Santos, Frank Mir, Fabricio Werdum, Stipe Miocic, Daniel Cormier, Alistair Overeem and Jos Barnett.

Alexander Volkov

Volkov has won three straight fights, including his UFC debut this past November at UFC Fight Night 99 in Northern Ireland. There, he took a split decision from Timothy Johnson. All the media members tracked by MMADecisions.com scored the fight for Johnson. Volkov won Bellator’s heavyweight title in 2012, but lost it to Vitaly Minakov in his first title defense.

With the addition, the latest UFC on FOX 24 card includes:

• Champ Demetrious Johnson vs. Wilson Reis – for flyweight title
• Rose Namajunas vs. Michelle Waterson
• Ronaldo Souza vs. Robert Whittaker
• Renato Moicano vs. Jeremy Stephens
• Roy Nelson vs. Alexander Volkov
• Tim Elliott vs. Louis Smolka
• Devin Clark vs. Jake Collier
• Nathan Coy vs. Zak Cummings
• Andrew Sanchez vs. Anthony Smith
• Tom Duquesnoy vs. Patrick Williams

For more on UFC on FOX 24, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.