Sergei Pavlovich issues statement following loss to Alexander Volkov at UFC Saudi Arabia: “This was very emotional and tough for me”

Sergei Pavlovich has issued a statement following his loss to Alexander Volkov at UFC Saudi Arabia.

It was just this past Saturday, June 22nd, that saw Alexander Volkov (38-10 MMA) defeat Sergei Pavlovich (18-3 MMA) by unanimous decision in the heavyweight co-main event at UFC Saudi Arabia.

It was Pavlovich’s first fight since suffering a first-round knockout loss to Tom Aspinall (14-3 MMA) in their interim UFC Heavyweight Championship fight last year. The 32-year-old has now lost two in a row in the Octagon.

Following the fight, Pavlovich shoved ‘Drago’ in what was a clear sign of frustration.

Taking to ‘X‘ today, Sergei Pavlovich made the following statement:

“It wasn’t my day, nothing went according to plan. I was ready for anything, but I was too focused on getting a knockout and took too many unnecessary hits. The result was a loss by points. This was very emotional and tough for me, especially knowing that I didn’t meet your expectations. Thank you all for your support! I promise to come back stronger and wiser..”

With the victory, Alexander Volkov has won all of his last 4 fights in the cage.

Volkov, at the post-fight press conference shared:

“I don’t know (what happened), I just come to say, ‘Thank you for a great fight’ and he (Pavlovich) got mad. Maybe (he shoved me because of) all the games before the fight.”

Continuing ‘Drago’ said:

“I mean I didn’t think it was a nice thing to do from him, I guess he’s mad at me – I’m not really sure why and I would love to figure out why, maybe he just misunderstood something but it’s his fault, not mine.”

Concluding, Volkov believes it was very out of character for Sergei to behave the way he did:

“To be honest, this was the first time that I’ve ever heard Sergei curse because he kind of told me to – well I’m not going to repeat what he said – but this is the first time I’ve actually heard him maliciously use curse words in my direction.”

Were you watching UFC Saudi Arabia? What did you think of the exchange between the two former friends and training partners?

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