Australian Alex “The Hulk” Volkanovski will get his long awaited shot inside the Octagon as he steps up to face Jon Tuck in the UFC next month.
Riding a ten-fight win streak, Volkanovski replaces French fighter Mehdi Baghdad who was forced off the card due to an injury. Confirmation of the bout came via Tiger Muay Thai on social media earlier today.
Congrats to Tiger Muay Thai fighter Alex “The Hulk” Volkanovski who will be making his UFC debut at UFC Manila… https://t.co/YGRVLLrJ1D
— Tiger Muay Thai (@tigermuaythai) September 15, 2016
Volkanovski (13-1) started off his career as a welterweight winning three on the trot, including a stoppage over current UFC fighter Anton Zafir before losing to Corey Nelson, in what has been his only career loss. Since then, Volkanovski has bounced between the featherweight and lightweight divisions where he has wracked up 10 wins on the trot. Impressively, only one of those fights has gone to a decision. He was awarded the Fight News Australia domestic fighter of the year in 2014 and has gone on to capture both the Australian Fighting Championships and the Pacific X-Treme Combat titles. “The Hulk” currently splits his training camps between Freestyle Fighting Gym and Tiger Muay Thai.
Fighting out of Guam, Jon Tuck (9-3) has competed in the UFC six times however has struggled to win two fights in a row for a mixed 3-3 record in the Octagon. His victories have come against Tiequan Zhang, Jake Lindsey and Tae Hyun Bang. The 32-year-old is tough to put away with all his career losses coming via a decision, including an Ultimate Fighter loss against Al Iaquinta. He last competed back in May, losing a split decision to American Josh Emmett.
UFC Fight Night 97 takes place at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, in Manila, Philippines on October 15. The event is headlined by a featherweight bout between BJ Penn and Ricardo Lamas.
Fight Card:
- BJ Penn vs. Ricardo Lamas
- Derrick Lewis vs. Marcin Tybura
- Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Ali Bagautinov
- Mizuto Hirota vs. Cole Miller
- Sam Alvey vs. Alex Nicholson
- Seo Hee Ham vs. Danielle Taylor
- Jon Tuck vs. Alex Volkanovski
- James Moontasri vs. Alex Morono
- Ryan James vs. Dongi Yang
- Damir Hadzovic vs. Yusuke Kasuya
- Jenel Lausa vs. Zhikui Yao
I’m all about finishing fights and making statements – An interview with Alex Volkanovski
Alex Volkanovski wins tenth straight with victory over Jai Bradney in Wollongong
