An upcoming heavyweight bout between No. 2 contender Ciryl Gane and No. 3 contender Alexander Volkov has been rescheduled for UFC 310 in December.
The UFC made an official announcement Friday. The pair were originally set to meet at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi at the end of October but Volkov sustained an injury that would prevent him from competing on that card.
This is a rematch of a 2021 Fight Night main event from the UFC Apex that Gane won via unanimous decision.
Gane last fought one year ago, when he defeated Serghei Spivac via technical knockout. The 34-year-old from France is a former interim titleholder who is 1-2 in UFC title fights. He defeated Derrick Lewis to win an interim belt in 2021, lost to Francis Ngannou in a failed attempt to unify titles. He was alos submitted by Jon Jones in two minutes at UFC 285.
Volkov is a former Bellator heavyweight champion but has bever fought for UFC gold. The six-foot-seven Russian has won four in a row
Current heavyweight champion Jon Jones is set to headline UFC 309 in his first title defence against Stipe Miocic.
Active, defending interim champ Tom Aspinall will, in theory, next face the winner of Jones-Miocic but said in a recent video blog that if the UFC 309 winner ends up retiring then he’d likely fight the winner of Gane-Volkov 2 next instead.
UFC 310 takes place Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event has not yet booked its headline bout.