Former light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira came for Magomed Ankalaev after the two had a run-in before UFC 320.
Pereira is set to have a rematch against current champion Ankalaev in a bid to reclaim his belt, and the Brazilian fighter is eager to get things moving. The last time the two met in the octagon was at UFC 313, where Ankalaev wrestled Pereira to a score unanimous decision win.
Since that bout, many have looked forward to the rematch, with others wondering when it would happen. Now the fight date has been set and both athletes are finally preparing in Las Vegas, but Pereira made it clear he wanted to get the show on the road after a faceoff at the UFC Performance Institute.
“Something funny happened when we left the P.I.,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel. “I saw Ankalaev’s coach. He was there, and I was looking at him. You could tell he was looking at us, trying to say hi, but I didn’t want to talk too much. But I didn’t see Ankalaev. It was funny. When we left the P.I., I left and went to the car. When I got to the car, a guy from my team was still there, and he saw a P.I. staffer, and she was saying, ‘Ankalaev, you can come. He already left.’
“He was hiding from me. He thinks I’m going to meet him, and I’m going to fight him. I’m not an idiot. We’re getting ready for a fight. I’m a professional. But to think about it and hide in a room, and the girl said, ‘You can come, he already left.’ What the f*ck?”
Pereira’s coach, Plinio Cruz, suggested Ankalaev’s reluctance to cross paths could relate to a recent tweet from Ankalaev, where he promised to send Pereira back to his old job “at the tire shop” after UFC 320.
“He’s talking nonsense,” Pereira said when he learned about Ankalaev’s tweet. “… I was thinking he’s going to hide inside the P.I. with fear, now I know. I thought the UFC asked him to. When we got there, security came, and I thought, ‘It’s never been like this.’ I’ve never demonstrated that I wanted to fight, and I stayed there. But now I know he’s talking nonsense. If I say something, I’ll stay here and hold things down. But the point of him hiding inside the room because I’m in the same environment; he’s a chump.”
“Sometimes it’s like they say, it could be his manager,” Pereira added. “Everyone says that, but then we see that his manager isn’t there, so now it’s up to him. But really, he can say that and more. I’ll just stay in my lane. I’m never going to mess with him. I’m never going to get there. Of course, if he comes at me, I’m going to defend myself.
“But then what kind of champ is that? He’s a dogshit champ. That’s it. The only dumb thing I said. Not because of what he says, but today he has to hide in a room. He showed that he’s a chump. He’s hiding now, but we’ll be in the octagon. There’s nowhere to go unless he climbs the cage. He’s a dogshit champion.”
At the end of the day, Alex Pereira isn’t backing down, and he’s making it clear that Magomed Ankalaev can’t hide forever. The talk will soon be over, and once they step into the octagon at UFC 320, Ankalaev will have nowhere to run.
