The originally anticipated heavyweight rematch between Ciril Gane and Alexander Volkov at UFC 308 will no longer take place.
Volkov recently announced that he was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a knee injury. La Suer was first to report that the fight had been removed from UFC 308’s schedule. French media outlets reported that the heavyweight bout had been postponed to UFC 310, but MMAFighting.com reports that a decision has not yet been made. UFC 308 will take place on October 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi and will be headlined by a featherweight championship showdown between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway.
“I regret to inform you that my fight on October 26th in Abu Dhabi has been cancelled due to a knee injury,” Volkov wrote on Instagram. “I will work hard to get back in the gym and compete as soon as possible.”
Gane and Volkov first faced off in the main event of UFC Fight Night 190 in June 2021, with the Frenchman winning via five-round unanimous decision.
A former interim heavyweight champion, Ngannou twice failed to capture the undefeated belt, losing a unanimous decision to Francis Ngannou at UFC 270 and a first-round submission to Jon Jones at UFC 285. Following his loss to Jones, “Bon Gamin” bounced back with a second-round TKO win over Sergey Spivak at UFC Fight Night 226 in September of this year.
Volkov, a former Bellator MMA and M-1 Global champion, is yet to challenge for UFC gold since joining the company in 2016. The 35-year-old Russian boxer has won his last four bouts, including a three-round decision win over former training partner Sergey Pavlovich at UFC on ABC 6 on June 22.
