After a reign marked by impressive knockouts and fallen opponents, Alex Pereira’s rule has finally come to an end as he loses his title to Magomed Ankalaev.
The bout between Ankalaev and Pereira headlined UFC 313, and it was a night to remember for many, as both fighters brought their A-game to the octagon. Pereira came out hot with strikes and calf kicks, but Ankalaev was fully prepared and found his pace. He soon hit his flow, retaliating with a combination of his own, followed by a takedown. However, Pereira stood his ground and defended well until the first round came to an end.
Ankalaev entered the second round with some damage to his limbs from Pereira’s persistent attack, but he responded with kicks of his own, landing several shots to the champ’s midsection. “Big Ank” came in with an overhand swing, clocking Pereira’s chin. This forced Pereira to step up his game, but Ankalaev gave no leeway, continuing with strikes and landing a left hook that dropped Pereira. The contender went in for the kill, but the round ended shortly after that.
Ankalaev continued to hammer his opponent with precise strikes and kicks, leaving the champ evading contact. The Russian maintained his offensive, landing a straight right hand followed by an overhand. Ankalaev pressed on, landing punch after punch, and went in for a grapple, but Pereira defended well and stayed on his feet. Ankalaev kept the pressure on during the championship rounds, landing blow after blow. To Pereira’s credit, he managed to stay in the cage and responded with jabs. The fight finally came to an end with Ankalaev scoring a unanimous decision win, earning the UFC light heavyweight title.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Ankalaev said after the win. “It’s been such a long road, and here’s my dream. It’s on my waist. I don’t think anything surprised me. I think I could have done a better job in the fight. But something just wasn’t working out. Anyway, I’m really happy that I won.”
The new UFC light heavyweight champion, Magomed Ankalaev, praised Pereira for his performance and said it was an honor to face the former champ. Although he has much respect for Pereira, Ankalaev stated that Pereira didn’t bring his best to the fight. He disclosed that Pereira’s strategy contributed to the lack of defining action in the fight.
“It was very different from what we envisioned because, as you know, usually Pereira hunts for the finish,” Ankalaev said via a Russian translator. “He moves forward, he tries to hunt down his opponents for the finish. Here, it was very different, as you can see. He was running away from me, he wasn’t letting me work, and he wasn’t really working much himself. So, you saw how it played out.”
“I was confident,” Ankalaev continued. “I kept moving forward, kept pressuring him, and he kept running away from me. For 20 minutes, this guy was running away from me. Then I heard at the end of the fight he was saying that he wasn’t sure why the victory was given to me. Who’s supposed to get the victory? I’ve been pressuring him the entire time, he was running for 20 minutes, and then he’s wondering why I got the victory?”
Notwithstanding the performance, Ankalaev revealed that he’s open to a rematch and advised Pereira to step things up next time and not run away. In a tweet released after the fight, Ankalaev said he was open to a rematch with Pereira.
“I just watched the whole fight. I can outstrike the best strikers. In the first three rounds, I made up my mind to just strike with him. It was so much fun, but it wasn’t easy when all your opponent does is run,” Ankalaev tweeted. “My pressure today was my best weapon, and I’m very happy.”
As for Alex Pereira, the fighter was a bit dazed and disappointed after his loss, but he understood that the judges were accurate with their scoring.
“I knew it would be a war. Every fight of mine is a war,” Pereira said. “He put some pressure on me in the second round. I felt some of his strikes, but when he put me up against the cage, he didn’t really do anything. We followed our strategy. We know that he puts people against the fence and plays that game. Giving him the win with a game plan like that kind of incentivizes people to do that against others. People might say it’s a boring style, but when a guy gets a win doing that, it kind of makes people want to do that too. I hurt him against the fence; the only difference was I was the one against the fence.”
Despite his loss, “Poatan” is in good spirits and released a video on Instagram thanking his supporters. He also disclosed that he will be in better form for a rematch against Ankalaev.
“Gonna make some adjustments for the rematch, and I’ll be back much better. You can count on it. Never give up on your dreams. Chama,” Pereira said.
It is undetermined when the rematch will take place, but UFC CEO Dana White has confirmed that the fight will occur soon.
