Alexander Volkov responds to critics of stoppage win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC Vegas 56: “He was almost on the mat”

Alexander Volkov doesn’t believe anyone criticizing the stoppage of his UFC Vegas 56 victory has a valid point.

Volkov shared the Octagon with Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the main event of UFC Vegas 56. The action was held inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Volkov scored the first-round TKO finish as referee Herb Dean had seen enough of the damage Rozenstruik was taking. “Bigi Boy” did not agree with the stoppage.

During the post-fight press conference, Volkov expressed his belief that he was close to putting Rozenstruik’s lights out (via MMAJunkie.com).

“The moment I hit him he was a little bit knocked out,” Volkov told reporters at the UFC Fight Night 207 post-fight press conference. “He wasn’t fully fresh, so it was a big opportunity to knock him out to the end because he was almost on the mat. I was ready to throw him down and continue my work, so anyway he was in bad position.

“The referee stopped this fight, but anyway he was in a little bit bad position and he took some of my hard punches and he was a little bit knocked out. It’s not my fault, ask the referee not me. I did my job.”

Regardless of how others might feel, Volkov has to be happy with how things played out this past Saturday. He was able to rebound after suffering a first-round submission loss to Tom Aspinall back in March.

It was a bit of a quick turnaround for someone losing in that fashion and he made the most of it. Volkov will maintain his number seven spot on the official UFC heavyweight rankings. He won’t be moving up as Aspinall is ahead of him at number six.