The UFC will finally return to London on March 19, but a new main event might be needed.
The Fight Night card currently is headlined by Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall at The O2 arena, but the Russian heavyweight could face issues trying to enter the country due to the ongoing war between his home country and Ukraine, MMA Fighting has learned.
On Sunday, a member of the Parliament revealed on Twitter that “the UK will not welcome the national sports teams of those countries who are complicit in Putin’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
The lineup includes three other Russian athletes: Timur Valiev, who faces Jack Shore, and heavyweight combatants Shamil Abdurakhimov and Sergei Pavlovich.
Multiple people with knowledge of the situation told MMA Fighting that Volkov’s visa is now at risk, and the UFC is currently looking into the situation for possible solutions. It’s still unclear if the UFC would move Volkov-Aspinall to a different event in the United States, or keep Aspinall on the card against a new opponent.
Aspinall (11-2) is on a perfect 4-0 run under the UFC banner with wins over the likes of Andrei Arlovski and Sergey Spivak. Volkov (34-9) looks for his second straight victory after a decision over Marcin Tybura this past October.
Hereeeeee We Go
I was wondering what kind of reception the Russian fighters would receive. if tonight’s fight was in an arena rather than the apex how bad would Islam get booed when they announced him fighting out of Russia.
about to find out
Not a good one. At bellator they where getting boo’d
interesting
Not a chance he’s gonna be fighting. If by a very slim chance he does, he can expect to get bombarded with more crap than Hogan when he went NWO
agreed, no fucking way a Russian can perform a spectacle for the British people on their soil at the moment.
That’s shitty
Oh for fuck’s sake. Now we’re doing cancel culture on a global scale?
No way a Russian should have fought on US soil last night either, fucking disgusts me, Dana should be ashamed. Any Russian worldwide with any significant wealth or celebrity status should be sent the fuck packing. We see the shit a lot of Russian UFC fighters spout on Twitter. Either come out publicly and condemn this shit, or fuck off
With all due respect it’s a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Calling the “Russia-Ukraine war” makes it sound way too mutual.
“Risk your life condemning your dictator or fuck off” seems super fair.
ttt
Just to make it clear, just because dreville seems to agree with me this once, I do not agree with his posts on this.
I love to Jeopardy, baby.