Compare Alexander Volkov vs Rizvan Kuniev — UFC matchup breakdown
Tale of the Tape
The biometric deltas where one side genuinely has an edge.
Activity & layoff
The recency dimension Tale of the Tape doesn't carry. How active each fighter has been, and how that compares to active peers in their division.
Division percentiles below rank both fighters against the Heavyweight roster (343 fighters).
Recent form
Last five pro bouts (non-UFC fights dashed + tagged), current trajectory, and the level of opposition going into this matchup.
Common opponents
Every UFC opponent both fighters have faced — a direct comparison controlling for matchmaking.
Schedule Score
Who they've faced × what they've done. Composite + components compared head-to-head, percentile-ranked against every UFC fighter w/ ≥3 resolved bouts.
A descriptive read of the non-UFC slate from opponents’ full career pro records — not a UFC-grade Schedule Score.
Per-tier records + bout-by-bout
| Tier | Alexander Volkov | Rizvan Kuniev |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | 1-1 | — |
| Top-5 | 6-4 | 1-1 |
| Top-15 | 5-0 | — |
| Building | 2-0 | — |
- W vs Waldo Cortes Acosta#481May 9, 2026 · Top-5
- W vs Jailton Almeida#578Oct 25, 2025 · Top-5
- L vs Ciryl Gane#292Dec 7, 2024 · Top-5
- W vs Sergei Pavlovich#388Jun 22, 2024 · Top-5
- W vs Tai Tuivasa#681Sep 9, 2023 · Top-5
- W vs Alexandr Romanov#1364Mar 11, 2023 · Top-15
- W vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik#880Jun 4, 2022 · Top-5
- L vs Tom Aspinall#1188Mar 19, 2022 · Champion
- W vs Marcin Tybura#972Oct 30, 2021 · Top-15
- L vs Ciryl Gane#391Jun 26, 2021 · Top-5
- W vs Alistair Overeem#586Feb 6, 2021 · Top-5
- W vs Walt Harris#872Oct 24, 2020 · Top-15
- L vs Curtis Blaydes#386Jun 20, 2020 · Top-5
- W vs Greg Hardy18Nov 9, 2019 · Building
- L vs Derrick Lewis#287Oct 6, 2018 · Top-5
- W vs Fabricio Werdum#394Mar 17, 2018 · Champion
- W vs Stefan Struve#872Sep 2, 2017 · Top-15
- W vs Roy Nelson#1172Apr 15, 2017 · Top-15
- W vs Timothy Johnson18Nov 19, 2016 · Building
All figures are 0–100 ratings (shown as %), not percentages of anything literal. Schedule strength = the average quality of every UFC opponent faced (win or lose). Win quality = the average quality of the opponents actually beaten. The composite Schedule Score combines schedule strength (65%) with win quality (35%). Per-bout opponent quality is scored on rank-at-time-of-fight (champion 100, ranks 1–5 = 90→78, ranks 6–15 = 75→60), with cross-division and P4P signals layered on, falling back to opponent UFC record-at-time for unranked opponents. For fighters with limited UFC experience the headline is held toward a rookie baseline, so debut / low-sample fighters read lower than established names. UFC ranking data is sparse before December 2018, so legacy-era fighters score from record-at-time when ranks are missing.
Career splits
Striking matchup
Each fighter's offense mapped against the other's defense — where one attacks meets where the other gets hit, across head, body, and leg. Per 15 minutes of UFC fight time.
Evenly matched striking — no clear edge either way.
Each lane: the attacker’s strike rate (offense) vs the other’s rate absorbed (defense), graded on the division. The bar leans toward whoever wins the exchange — longer + greener = a bigger, higher-quality edge.
Full breakdown — all zones, both views
| Zone | Fighter | Landed / 15 | Accuracy | Absorbed / 15 | Career landed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Alexander Volkov | top 20% of division42.9 | 48% | above division average27.0 | 734 |
| Head | Rizvan Kuniev | above division average33.4 | 39% | around division average31.1 | 69 |
| Body | Alexander Volkov | top 15% of division15.2 | 79% | below division average9.3 | 269 |
| Body | Rizvan Kuniev | around division average8.3 | 75% | around division average8.6 | 15 |
| Leg | Alexander Volkov | top 13% of division13.8 | 85% | well below average10.4 | 247 |
| Leg | Rizvan Kuniev | around division average4.9 | 100% | below division average8.9 | 4 |
Per-15-minute rates are sourced from UFCStats fight totals across each fighter’s UFC career. Division percentile is computed against every UFC fighter who has competed in this weight class with at least two recorded bouts. Lower “absorbed” values are better — the percentile is inverted so “top of division” always means better outcome.
Grappling matchup
Takedowns, submission threat, and control. Per 15 minutes of UFC fight time, with takedown defense as a percentage of opponent attempts stopped.
Each metric graded on the division — the bar leans toward whoever wins that part of the grappling exchange (longer + greener = a bigger edge).
Evenly matched grappling — no clear edge either way.
Full breakdown — career grappling totals
| Metric | Alexander Volkov | Rizvan Kuniev |
|---|---|---|
| Takedowns landed / 15career takedowns | 0.610 | 0.00 |
| Takedown accuracycareer landed / attempted | 63%10 / 16 | —0 / 0 |
| Takedown defensecareer stopped / faced | 69%68 / 98 | 91%21 / 23 |
| Submission attempts / 15career attempts | 0.12 | 0.00 |
| Control time / 15 (min)career total | 1.4 min22:53 | 3.5 min7:01 |
| Time controlled by opponent / 15 (min)career total | 3.4 min56:09 | 3.4 min6:45 |
All rates computed from UFCStats fight totals across each fighter’s UFC career. Takedown defense = opponent attempts stopped ÷ opponent total attempts. Control time figures are minutes the fighter spent in a dominant position per 15 minutes of fight time. Accuracy under 8 career attempts is shown raw and ungraded — too small a sample to rate against the division.
Finishing & durability
How often each fighter ends fights early — and how often they get put away. Outcomes view, not per-minute output.
When their fights end
every pro finish on the fight clockFinish & durability rates
Full professional career
Full method breakdown
| Outcome | Alexander Volkov | Rizvan Kuniev |
|---|---|---|
| Wins | ||
| by KO / TKO | 24(60%) | 6(46%) |
| by submission | 4(10%) | 2(15%) |
| by decision | 12(30%) | 4(31%) |
| other | 0(0%) | 1(8%) |
| Losses | ||
| by KO / TKO | 2(18%) | 0(0%) |
| by submission | 3(27%) | 0(0%) |
| by decision | 6(55%) | 3(100%) |
| other | 0(0%) | 0(0%) |
Full professional career method splits, graded against the full-pro division distribution. Career KO losses are the total — clean knockouts and cut/injury stoppages can’t be separated outside the UFC corpus. Finish-time pace is UFC-only.
KO history
UFC fights only — knockout power and chin durability, head-to-head, then when the last finish landed, and on whom.
- Last time KO'dvs Derrick Lewis7y 8mo agoUFC 229: Khabib vs. McGregor · Oct 6, 2018 · R3 · 4:49
- Last time submittedvs Tom Aspinall4y 3mo agoUFC Fight Night: Volkov vs. Aspinall · Mar 19, 2022 · R1 · 3:45
- Last time KO'dNever finished by strikes in the UFC
- Last time submittedNever submitted in the UFC
Pace & fade
How each fighter's work rate holds up as a fight wears on — round-by-round output (striking, takedown attempts, and control time combined), and whether they fade. The fade % compares round-3 output to round 1 over bouts that reached the third round.
Cardio edge to Kuniev: Kuniev builds (+13% per round through round 3) while Volkov fades (-6% per round through round 3). Within fights that reached round 3, Volkov sustains 97% of round-1 output by round 3, Kuniev 135%.
Rounds backed by fewer than 2 bouts are drawn smaller and dimmed with an n= count — a deep round seen in one or two fights is a thin sample, not a settled rate. Per-round bout counts are in the breakdown below.
Full per-round breakdown — both fighters
What drives the pace · per round
The composite output line above blends these three inputs. Splitting them out shows whether a fighter’s work rate is built on striking volume, takedown pressure, or top control — and which input fades.
| Round | Fighter | Output / min | Sig landed / min | Sig absorbed / min | TD att / min | Control | Bouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Alexander Volkov | 6.1 | 5.2 | 2.9 | 0.11 | 12% | 19 |
| R1 | Rizvan Kuniev | 2.9 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 0.00 | 22% | 2 |
| R2 | Alexander Volkov | 5.8 | 5.5 | 3.1 | 0.03 | 5% | 16 |
| R2 | Rizvan Kuniev | 4.9 | 3.9 | 2.4 | 0.00 | 24% | 2 |
| R3 | Alexander Volkov | 5.4 | 4.8 | 3.1 | 0.03 | 11% | 13 |
| R3 | Rizvan Kuniev | 3.9 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 0.00 | 24% | 2 |
| R4 | Alexander Volkov | 5.2 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 0.17 | 11% | 3 |
| R4 | Rizvan Kuniev | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| R5 | Alexander Volkov | 3.1 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 0.00 | 2% | 2 |
| R5 | Rizvan Kuniev | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Output / minis the headline work rate — significant strikes landed, plus 3 per takedown attempt, plus one per 15 seconds of control — so a takedown-and-grind round isn’t scored as idle the way bare striking volume would. The remaining columns are its components. Per-round rates use UFCStats per-round data (available for ~95% of bouts since 2008). Each round’s rates are averaged only over bouts that reached that round, so the bout count shrinks as rounds deepen. The final round of a finished fight is pro-rated by its actual length — a 2:30 stoppage counts as 2.5 minutes, not five — so an early finish doesn’t distort the per-minute pace.