Rizvan Kuniev has a 6-foot-7 problem standing in front of him Saturday night, and he’s already talking about the guy after that.
The Dagestani heavyweight blasted the UFC rankings for slotting Alex Pereira so high in the heavyweight division, a spot he called “very strange,” according to MMA Fighting. Pereira hasn’t fought a single bout in the weight class yet, which is the part Kuniev can’t wrap his head around. MMA Fighting described him as very confused about how Pereira landed there. Kuniev also made it plain he wants Pereira next, once he gets through Alexander Volkov at UFC 333.
That “once” is doing a lot of work.
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Volkov is the No. 2-ranked heavyweight in the UFC, and over the last five years he’s lost to exactly two men. One is former champion Tom Aspinall. The other is current champion Ciryl Gane, who has beaten him twice, and plenty of people (MMA Mania’s betting writer among them) thought Volkov got robbed in the second one. Outside of those two, the 37-year-old has been close to automatic. He’s won six of his last seven, with wins over Sergei Pavlovich, Jailton Almeida, Tai Tuivasa and Waldo Cortes-Acosta. That last one came by unanimous decision at UFC 328 in Newark on May 9.
Kuniev, 34, has done real work since arriving in the UFC. He dropped a narrow split decision to Curtis Blaydes, then rebounded with wins over Almeida and Tyrell Fortune. He’s strong, he can box, and he likes to drag fights into the clinch where things get ugly. A win over Volkov would put him squarely in the Top 5 conversation he’s been knocking on.
The physical gap is significant. Volkov is giving away nothing in the size department, holding a three-inch height edge and a four-inch reach edge over Kuniev with his 80-inch wingspan. He’s spent years keeping heavyweights on the end of his jab and kicking them for daring to stand there.
The oddsmakers aren’t treating it like a mismatch, though. Volkov sits at just -118 on the moneyline, and MMA Mania made him its Weekend Lock at that price, arguing Volkov should be fighting for the belt instead of defending his spot against a hungry contender. Method props have Volkov by decision at +175 and Kuniev by decision at +200. Volkov by knockout is +400, Kuniev by knockout is +600.
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UFC 333 goes down Saturday, Oct. 24, at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Alexander Volkanovski defends the featherweight title against Movsar Evloev in the main event, and Volkov vs. Kuniev lands on the main card.
My take: Kuniev has a point, and I’ll happily co-sign any shot at rankings that reward a name over a single heavyweight result. Ranking a guy before he’s taken a fight in the division is the kind of thing that makes the whole system look like a marketing sheet. But calling out Pereira before you’ve solved Volkov is a bold way to spend fight week. If Kuniev wants the Pereira conversation to go anywhere, he needs to get inside that jab Saturday and make Volkov miserable against the fence for 15 minutes. Otherwise this quote ages fast.
