Dana White says UFC heavyweight contender will ‘get his title shot’ despite being in ‘no man’s land’

Unfortunately for Alexander Volkov, Dana White thinks he is in ‘no man’s land’ in the UFC heavyweight title picture.

When Tom Aspinall vacated the UFC heavyweight title this past September, MMA fans questioned who would go on to fight for the vacant strap, considering the state of the division right now.

It didn’t take long for the promotion to announce that Ciryl Gane will fight Josh Hokit for the title at UFC 334, despite ‘Bon Gamin’ being the reason for Aspinall’s injury.

That left number four ranked heavyweight contender, Alexander Volkov, feeling quite hard-done by, considering his recent performances.

Volkov laughed at the UFC booking Gane vs. Hokit considering the consensus was that he beat ‘Bon Gamin’ when they fought at UFC 310 in 2024.

In fact, UFC boss Dana White was so convinced that the Russian contender won that fight, that he went and apologized to him cageside for being ‘robbed’ by the judges.

“Tell him he got f—– by the judges. I don’t know what we’ll do but we’ll try to make it right by him,” White told Volkov’s translator cageside at the time.

Despite that, since that fight the 37-year-old has gone on to fight twice more, winning both of his fights by decision, which he thought might put him in line for a title shot. White believes that Volkov is in ‘no mans land’, though, saying that his title shot will come despite his precarious position.

“He’s in there (in the mix),” White told reporters at UFC 332. “It’s not like he has to do anything to come close to the title shot. He’s in it right now, everything you said is dead on, and he’ll get his shot,” White continued.

The 37-year-old is scheduled to take on Rizvan Kuniev at UFC 333, with a win likely confirming him as the next title contender in the heavyweight division.

“Sometimes people get in these weird positions where they feel like they’re in no man’s land, but it’s just a timing issue. You got Tom Aspinall, the situation that happened with him. We got through that, waiting for him to come back. Gane’s in there. He thinks we should have done the rematch (with Alex Pereira). There’s a lot of different variables that determine whether a guy’s going to fight next or whatever. He couldn’t be in a better position,” White added.