Written by Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Magomed Ankalaev blames Alex Pereira for a UFC 313 main event that was light on action.
In Saturday’s headlining bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Ankalaev earned a unanimous decision win over Pereira to claim the UFC light heavyweight championship. Ankalaev’s methodical win was in stark contrast to the fireworks seen in Pereira’s previous title fights, which drew some criticism from their fellow fighters and fans.
Ankalaev defended his tactics at the evening’s post-fight press conference, putting the onus on “Poatan” for not engaging.
“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 himself wasn’t really working much, so you saw the way it played out.”
The championship-winning scores for Ankalaev were a pair of 48-47s and a 49-46, with several of the rounds appearing to be toss-ups in the moment (MMA Fighting scored the contest 48-47 for Pereira). In Ankalaev’s opinion, the outcome was never in doubt, and he again pointed to what he perceived to be hesitance on Pereira’s part as to why no one should be complaining about the result.
“I was confident,” Ankalaev said. “I kept on moving forward, I kept pressuring him and he kept on 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 me. Who’s supposed to be given the victory? I’ve been pressuring him the entire time, he was running for 20 minutes, and then he’s wondering who’s supposed to get the victory?
“Listen, I’m happy for a rematch if he wants a rematch. But then maybe in the rematch he can fight for real and not just run away the entire time.”
A prevalent narrative heading into Saturday’s main event was the possibility of Ankalaev using a wrestling-focused attack to stifle Pereira’s explosive striking. Though Ankalaev failed to secure a takedown in the contest (he was 0-for-12 on takedown attempts according to official UFC stats), he was able to neutralize Pereira against the fence on multiple occasions.
Ankalaev wasn’t surprised by Pereira’s wrestling defense, nor was he surprised that he won the fight on the feet.
“He was considered to be the best striker in the division on the way to this fight,” Ankalaev said. “That’s what everybody was talking about, the narrative was that he’s the best. You saw what kind of best striker he was in the fight. You saw how well we did against the striking and how our striking was working.
“We didn’t have to rely on the wrestling because we were confident in our striking. We were trying to get him to go forward the entire time, that’s what we were baiting, that’s what we were trying to push, and he never walked forward.”
Ahead of the matchup, Ankalaev said he would grant Pereira and immediate rematch after their fight and he didn’t change his tune now that he’s secured the victory. UFC Dana White said at the post-fight press conference he expects a rematch to happen.
Ankalaev will be waiting for the call.
“Yes, I never pick my opponents, so I’m very much happy and ready for a rematch,” Ankalaev said. “Whenever UFC offers it to us, we’ll see what the date is, we’ll be happy to accept it.”