Alexander Volkov turns Ciryl Gane's 'mentally fragile' jibe back on him

The Russian heavyweight says Gane gave up before his fight with Jon Jones, says karate gave him "very strong fingers", and offers deadpan praise for Josh Hokit's title shot.

Alexander Volkov has turned Ciryl Gane's description of Tom Aspinall as "mentally fragile" back on the new UFC heavyweight champion.

Gane said this week that Britain's Aspinall had taken their eye-poke row too far. Asked about it on The Ariel Helwani Show, Volkov, who has fought both men, said: "I can tell the same about Gane, honestly. Watch his fight with Jon Jones. He just give up before the fight."

On the eye pokes, Volkov said: "I did karate all my childhood and I'm still doing this. I have very strong fingers to put in the eyes. It's one of the weapons karate people have. So I can do every fight, it's just not legal."

Gane's first defence is against Josh Hokit at UFC 334 on 14 November. Volkov, who was not picked for the fight, delivered his verdict on it deadpan.

"I'm very supportive of this fight from UFC... Because Josh Hokit, what I know about him, he have clearly dealing with something, mental illness. So it's very admirable for UFC to put the guy with a serious mental condition to the title shot... it's an incredibly inspiring story of the guy with a mental illness who can fight for heavyweight title."

Helwani told him: "I was laughing because I don't know if you're being serious." Volkov kept a straight face. "Why are you laughing? Like, took it serious. You can't laugh about people who have a mental illness."

From our archive: Jon Jones needed 2:04 to beat Ciryl Gane.