UFC heavyweight Rizvan Kuniev has a clear path in his head for his next moves in the promotion: Beat Alexander Volkov at UFC 333 and then face off with Alex Pereira.
Kuniev enters the cage this Saturday in Abu Dhabi coming off of two wins over Tyrell Fortune and Jailton Almeida, and he had strong words for Volkov, a fellow Russian fighter with whom he has trained in the past. At media day on Wednesday, Kuniev made it clear he’s not friends with Volkov, and takes issue with the fact that the veteran brought up Kuniev’s past doping suspension from back in his PFL days in 2023.
“Whatever he’s trying to say that makes him feel superior,” Kuniev said, “Or maybe he’s trying to say that I’m doing something wrong so he’s mad at me for something, all of these things are him trying to cover up the amount of fear that he has, and his whole team has every time that they see me. And I’m sure that on Saturday, even after the fight, what they’re gonna say is, thank goodness that this fight is finally over, that we can let this person go, because they’re clearly scared.”
Volkov and Kuniev had the same result when they fought “Malhadinho” Almeida and Curtis Blaydes in the UFC, beating the Brazilian but losing a decision to Blaydes. Still, Kuniev sees them on a different level based on their performances against both.
“If we look back at my fight against Curtis Blaydes and what I did with Curtis Blaydes, and then we look back at their fight together and for five rounds,” Kuniev said, “Curtis Blaydes was outstriking him and then taking him down at will and basically mowing him down. We’re talking about two different style of fighters. And I see him over here in the hallways, I see that he’s trembling, his whole team is trembling. He’s trying to connect specific people to him that I trained with, that used to hold my pads for me.”
A win over top-ranked Volkov would insert Kuniev’s name in the conversation for a shot at the UFC belt. Undisputed champion Ciryl Gane defends his title for the first time on Nov. 14 at UFC 334 when he takes on Josh Hokit at Madison Square Garden, while Sergei Pavlovich battles “Poatan” Pereira at UFC 335 on Dec. 12 in Las Vegas.
When asked if he has a preference for an opponent next if a title shot isn’t immediately forthcoming, Kuniev took aim at the Brazilian superstar.
“I think Pereira-Pavlovich [winner], but honestly Pereira first because I wouldn’t want to fight somebody who is a countryman,” Kuniev said. “I would not want to fight Pavlovich because there’s tons of other guys in the top 10 in the heavyweight division who are not from where I’m from and that I can fight and it can still be an important fight and bring me close to the title.
“But like I said, I think Pereira is somebody that would be a really good fight for me because he’s a very big media name and for me, specifically for me, a win over him would really do a lot in media for myself.”
Pereira is one of the biggest names in the UFC today, let alone in the heavyweight division, but Kuniev takes issue with where he’s placed in the promotion’s Meta rankings despite an 0-1 record at heavyweight.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s AI that does those rankings because it doesn’t really make much sense,” Kuniev said. “I think the reason why he’s No. 3 is because they’re looking at all his accolades being a champion in two weight classes before this one.
“But to go on No. 3 in heavyweight after one loss, I think that’s very strange because at least give him a couple more fights. Nobody really even understood what Alex Pereira stands for in heavyweight. Nobody really saw what he can do. So to give him No. 3 right off the bat just seems off. I think at least a couple more fights, and then we can see. But just to have them at three is very strange.”