Written by Photo by Ian Maule/Getty Images
Alex Pereira was understandably disappointed with the result in his latest fight after handing the light heavyweight title to Magomed Ankalaev after five rounds in the UFC 313 main event.
While Pereira has become synonymous with exciting fights and blistering knockouts, he just couldn’t get much going offensively against Ankalaev outside of landing some nasty calf kicks early and then a late surge in the final round. The hardest punch all night came from Ankalaev in the second round when he blasted Pereira with a stunning left hook that wobbled the Brazilian just before time ran out.
Outside of that, it seemed like Pereira just couldn’t get going, especially with Ankalaev constantly pressuring forward and then pushing “Poatan” against the cage for several minutes during the championship rounds.
“I knew it would be a war,” Pereira said during his post-fight interview. “Every fight of mine is a war. He put some pressure in the second round. I felt some of his strikes but putting 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 he plays that game.”
Getting controlled against the fence without a whole lot of damage being dished out but still losing the fight was probably the toughest pill for Pereira to swallow.
He admits that the style Ankalaev employed was effective enough for him to get the job done and claim the UFC light heavyweight title and it’s possible more fighters might try to follow a similar strategy, which doesn’t exactly result in action-packed performances.
“Giving him the win with a game plan like that kind of incentivizes people to do that against people,” Pereira said. “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 is I was the one against the fence.”
In the end, Pereira lost a unanimous decision with the judges scoring the fight 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47 for Ankalaev, who is now the UFC light heavyweight champion.
It’s certainly not the outcome he wanted but Pereira is likely going to get the chance to rectify the loss after UFC CEO Dana White said an immediate rematch is “probably” next.
Pereira didn’t make that call during his in-cage interview to say he deserved another shot at Ankalaev right away, but changed the tone on social media.
“Gonna make some adjustments for the rematch, and I’ll be back much better, you can count on it,” Pereira said on a video posted Sunday. “Never give up on your dreams. Chama.”