Aljamain Sterling has picked a side in the heavyweight title mess, and he picked the guy the UFC keeps leaving off the dais.
The former bantamweight champion called out the UFC and Dana White for snubbing Alexander Volkov, according to MMA Sucka, pointing to Volkov’s long résumé and his recent run of wins over top competition as the kind of record that should already have earned a title shot. Sterling is right. And the best evidence for his case came from Volkov himself a few days earlier, in a story so absurd it sounds like a deleted scene from Borat.
The Heavyweight Who Came In Through the Turnstiles
Volkov wasn’t booked for the UFC 333 press conference. He told Ariel Helwani that this was the same treatment he’d gotten for his last three fights, and that he had no idea why. So he solved it the way your cousin solves a sold-out concert. He walked through the regular gates like any other fan, sat in the crowd and brought questions for the fighters and for White.
View post on X
Then came the best line of fight week, which had a Volkanovski title defense in it, so that’s saying something.
“I’m not even sure he can remember my name, and I bet every time he hears my name, he thinks they’re talking about Alexander Volkanovski,” Volkov told Helwani.
Volkov said he’s convinced White didn’t recognize him in that room. Funny, sure. But he followed the joke with the part that should bother anyone who cares about how titles get handed out.
“I’m asking, what should I do? What am I supposed to do to get a title fight? And they don’t have an answer.”
That question has no comeback. When a ranked heavyweight has to buy his way into the room (figuratively) and the boss of the company shrugs at him, you don’t have a matchmaking problem. You have an attention problem, and Sterling is calling it out by name.
View post on X
Look at How the Belt Actually Moved
The reason Volkov’s complaint lands so hard is the route the heavyweight title has taken over the last year. It’s been the opposite of a merit ladder.
Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane fought for the belt at UFC 321 in October 2025. That fight ended in a no-contest after Gane poked Aspinall in the eyes, and Aspinall has since gone through multiple eye surgeries, per MMA Fighting. Gane then defended his interim title against Alex Pereira at UFC White House, a fight that ended with Gane rocking Pereira and landing some illegal shots to the back of the head in the finishing flurry. Pereira has blamed referee Herb Dean for letting those go. After that, the UFC promoted Gane to undisputed champion while Aspinall sits on the shelf.
So the current champion’s path includes a no-contest he caused with a foul and a win over a light heavyweight that’s still being argued about. Meanwhile, the division’s most patient contender is asking strangers in the crowd how to get on the card. Dominick Cruz and T.J. Dillashaw went on Cruz’s Love & War podcast this week to defend Gane against the cheater label, and fine, you can buy their argument that Gane’s style draws pokes. You can’t argue that the UFC built this title picture around who earned it.
Pereira got his crack at heavyweight gold by being a star. Now he’s got Sergei Pavlovich next, and he’s said publicly he’ll head back to 205 if he loses at UFC 335. Israel Adesanya already mocked him for that, telling him to go back to Chama. That’s the energy of a guy treating heavyweight like a vacation rental, and the UFC handed him the keys before it handed Volkov a phone call.
The Volkanovski Joke Has Teeth
The name mix-up gag gets funnier the more you look at it. Volkanovski just stopped Movsar Evloev in the second round at UFC 333 to keep his featherweight belt, then pitched a superfight with lightweight champion Justin Gaethje where both men retire afterward. White said after the event that it would be hard to deny The Great many requests. Volkanovski has already lost twice to Islam Makhachev trying to win a second belt, and he’s still being treated like he can ask for a third try.
View post on X
One Alexander gets his wish list taken seriously. The other Alexander gets the general admission line. Same first name, two very different relationships with the man who signs the bouts.
I love Volk. Everybody loves Volk. But Chael Sonnen ripped the retirement superfight as one of the dumbest ideas he’d ever heard, and the contrast here is brutal. The UFC will entertain a featherweight’s trophy hunt and a light heavyweight’s heavyweight detour, and the guy who’s spent years doing it the slow, unglamorous way can’t get a seat at the table.
Sterling’s been busy this week (he also said he isn’t ready to crown Petr Yan the bantamweight GOAT), but this is his best take of the bunch, because it’s about fairness and nothing else. He doesn’t share a division or a camp with Volkov. He just looked at the board and saw what everyone sees.
The fix is easy. Put Volkov on the next heavyweight press conference with a real opponent sitting next to him, and make White say his name into a microphone. Spell it out for him if needed. Volkov, not Volkanovski.
