The UFC London main event is a mystery no longer!
UFC London doesn’t have Michael Bisping, but it does have a pair of heavyweights in the main event. The UFC announced Thursday that former champion Fabricio Werdum would face the surging Russian Alexander Volkov atop the card, which is numerically UFC Fight Night 127. The event takes place this coming March.
Your heavyweight #UFCLondon main event!!
🇧🇷 @FabricioWerdum vs. @AlexDragoVolkov 🇷🇺🎟 https://t.co/NFQ6n2IJTb
🎟 https://t.co/j3rWpJlaOI pic.twitter.com/K4JzQHP6BP— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) February 1, 2018
Werdum (23–7–1), at age forty, is looking to put himself back in title contention after a loss to Alistair Overeem last July. Since that time, he picked up wins over Marcin Tybura and Walt Harris, the latter an eleventh hour replacement for Derrick Lewis. Werdum continues to represent the most dangerous submission specialist currently in the heavyweight division, if not in its history.
Alexander Volkov (29–6) is a former Bellator MMA heavyweight champion currently on a five fight win streak. Three of those wins have come within the UFC. Boasting victories against Tim Johnson, Roy Nelson, and Stefan Struve, he finally broke into the top ten with his Fight of the Night TKO of ‘The Skyscraper’ in September.
Werdum, however, will mark Volkov’s toughest test to date. ‘Drago’ has been submitted twice in his career. Both losses, however, came early on under Russia’s M-1 banner. Volkov’s last defeat came at Bellator 139 back in 2015 against Cheick Kongo.
UFC Fight Night 127 takes place March 17 at the O2 Arena in London, England. In addition to the newly announced UFC London main event, light heavyweights Jimi Manuwa and Jan Błachowicz face off on the card.
