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Volkov rallies to KO Werdum in 4th round of UFC London main event

Matthew Childs / REUTERS

Feel free to color Alexander Volkov a UFC heavyweight contender.

After getting handily outgrappled early by Fabricio Werdum, Volkov rallied to brutally knock out the former divisional champ in the fourth round of UFC Fight Night 127's main event in London on Saturday.

The Russian improved to a perfect 4-0 in the Octagon with his second straight knockout and punctuated his arrival to a contenders table in dire need of new blood with a call for a title shot.

Being the decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner he is, Werdum put himself ahead on the scorecards with his grappling, scoring a single-leg takedown within seconds and spending the bulk of a workmanlike first round posturing up and raining ground-and-pound on his lanky foe.

The 40-year-old treated Volkov to some of the same in the second stanza - with an elbow from top position busting his dance partner open - to widen his lead in the judges' eyes, but his takedown attempts grew sloppier as his gas tank began cooking up other ideas.

Volkov cracked Werdum with a right hand over the top that soon turned his right eye into a swollen mess at the top of the third, and aside from a brief grappling exchange that saw Werdum take his back with alarming ease, the Russian exploited his sizable edge in the striking department to turn the tables heading into the fourth.

After another desperate shot from a fading Werdum ended with Volkov in top position, the latter summoned the former back to his feet, then countered a reckless flurry with a combination capped by an uppercut that sent Werdum to the canvas and left him ripe for the brutal coup de grace at the 1:38 mark of Round 4.

Werdum saw a two-fight win streak snapped in his third fight in just five months.

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