Why Chael Sonnen is baffled by Ciryl Gane being a big favorite over Alexander Volkov at UFC 310

Chael Sonnen does not agree with Ciryl Gane being a favorite over Alexander Volkov at UFC 310.

Gane (12-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) runs things back with Volkov (38-10 MMA, 6-3 UFC) on Saturday’s main card (pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

According to DraftKings, Gane is a -345 favorite to beat Volkov, who’s a +275 underdog. Although Gane outpointed Volkov with relative ease in their first fight in June 2021, Sonnen questions Gane’s recent commitment to the sport.

“Ciryl is a very heavy favorite,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I, for the life of me, do not know why. … I don’t mean to be negative towards Ciryl, but I will share with you: Nobody gets better at this sport by not doing it, and Ciryl passed up on very big opportunities to go and film a movie that nobody’s ever heard of and most likely will never see.

“But you can’t ever get around that. Every actor wants to be an athlete and every athlete wants to be an actor. There’s no way to ever work that out. So now Ciryl’s going to come in against largely a mirror image of himself.”

Volkov is 5-1 since losing to Gane, and is coming off arguably his most impressive performance to date – a dominant decision win over knockout artist Sergei Pavlovich at UFC on ABC 6 in June.

“Volkov went out and didn’t even take him serious,” Sonnen said. “Volkov’s trainer in between rounds brought him water and a comb. He combed his hair in between rounds, I mean he was doing marketing and he was doing a spoof, and he was performing because he was so unimpressed by your great-blonde hope who he eventually put down.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.