UFC Fight Night 115 headliner Alexander Volkov ready for more contenders with win over Struve

ROTTERDAM – It’s hard to find someone in the heavyweight ranks who can tower over Alexander Volkov. But fair play to the UFC matchmakers: They did it.

On Saturday in the UFC Fight Night 115 main event, Volkov (28-6 MMA, 2-0 UFC) fights pretty much the only guy he’d have to look up to in the division, physically, when he takes on Stefan Struve (28-8 MMA, 12-6 UFC) at Ahoy Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The entire event streams on UFC Fight Pass.

With four straight wins, including his first two in the UFC, former Bellator champion Volkov, a 6-foot-7 28-year-old from Russia, said he had to make some adjustments in his training camp to get ready for the 7-foot Struve.

“The main thing we changed is to bring tall guys into our camp,” Volkov told MMAjunkie today at a media day in support of the card. “Also, a famous sparring partner and coach (we had) to help us was Semmy Schilt, who’s a four-time K-1 world grand prix champion. He helped us a lot. We also changed some technical things to work with taller opponents. Everything was perfect.”

With his UFC wins over Roy Nelson in April at UFC on FOX 24 and Timothy Johnson by split decision in his promotional debut at UFC Fight Night 99 in Northern Ireland this past November, Volkov finds himself at No. 13 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA heavyweight rankings. Struve is not far behind him at No. 15.

But he’s not ready to make the leap just yet that a win over someone the caliber of Struve should get him right into the top of the pecking order to fight champion Stipe Miocic. He’s more realistic about things and believes a win on Saturday merely means he’ll continue to get fellow contenders before he can think about a title shot.

“Stefan Struve is a very tough opponent, and he’s one of the youngest fighters, like me, in the (UFC’s) top 10 heavyweights,” Volkov said. “I don’t really think about my place in the division, but I feel like if I win this fight, I’ll fight in contender fights for the belt.”

Volkov’s resume includes 18 knockouts in his 28 victories, as well as three submissions. It’s the other way around for his opponent. Struve has 17 submissions in 28 wins to go along with eight knockouts.

On paper, it would be easy to presume Volkov will want to stay standing rather than risk getting into a compromising position with a tall opponent who is adept at the ground game. Throw into the mix the fact Struve has been knocked out six times in his eight career losses, and a scenario with Volkov on his feet the whole time is one it’d be easy to believe he wants.

But he said if it goes to the canvas, bring it on. Just because he doesn’t have a lot of submissions doesn’t mean he doesn’t think he can excel there, too.

“I feel great, and I’m feeling like I’m much better in every (aspect),” he said. “I feel like I’m better at striking. I don’t know about grappling, because he’s finished a lot of fights by submission – but I’m also good with submissions; I just don’t use it. I feel like I’m better than him.”

Check out the video above for more from Volkov ahead of his main event against Struve.

And for more on UFC Fight Night 115, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.