Volkov asked about UFC’s attitude towards Russian invasion of Ukraine – says no restrictions

Aleksandar Volkov just returned triumphantly to the cage. Several months after suffering a setback defeat to Tom Aspinall, Volkov is back in action.

Volkov returned with a TKO victory over Jairzinho Rozenstruik this past weekend. Many questioned Herb Dean’s decision to call the bout but as is the W is back in Volkov’s column.

UFC imposed a flag ban for the entire promotion once Russian invasion of Ukraine happened. In order to keep employing Russian athletes without backlash the UFC issued a promotion wide ban on flag walk outs ahead of Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan.

The news of the ban didn’t make it out until several events later when Chito Vera revealed it to the press. Dana White subsequently confirmed it and explained it was there to stay.

Even prior to Russian invasion of Ukraine, UFC would find itself in problematic situations when athletes would go on to use flags to make political statements. This is why it was initially required to have your country’s consulate approve of the flag initially.

Now heavyweight contender Aleksandar Volkov confirmed that there are no restrictions beyond that.

“The UFC didn’t place any restrictions [on Russian fighters],” Volkov told Tass.ru. “The only thing is that they now warn all fighters that it’s impossible [to go out] with the flag. But I didn’t carry the flag before this fight, so it didn’t affect me in any way. So, there are no special recommendations [to the Russian fighters] no.”

 

In addition to this, there’s also a question of how Russian athletes are receiving payments considering that transfers to Russian banks are no longer an option. Sadly nobody asked Volkov about this. This kind of an issue was in focus when Dmitry Bivol