Written by Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Magomed Ankalaev has been anxiously awaiting the chance to defend his UFC light heavyweight title, and it appears his expected rematch against Alex Pereira is likely to take place later this year.
On Thursday, Ankalaev’s longtime manager, Ali Abdelaziz, revealed that he anticipates the Russian returning to action in October and running it back with Pereira for a second time. There are currently two pay-per-view events scheduled that month, with UFC 320 on Oct. 4 in Las Vegas and then UFC 321 on Oct. 25 from Abu Dhabi.
Competing in Abu Dhabi might make more sense for Ankalaev, but then again, Pereira’s star power could demand a return to Las Vegas, but either way, Abdelaziz expects his fighter to hear “and still” when the night is over.
“I think Alex is a good fighter. I think he’s a real fighter. He’s a lion,” Abdelaziz said about Pereira on the Pound-for-Pound podcast. “But in a way, Ankalaev should have been champion two or three years ago. Alex would have never been the champion. I’m going to tell you something — if they fight again, and they will fight again, probably in October — it’s going to be worse for Alex.
“Alex, he’s a fighter, but now Ankalaev has the confidence. He understands [Alex] was a scary guy, touching people and knocking them out, but he fought a whole bunch of mediocre strikers. None of these guys were high-level strikers. Ankalaev, he can wrestle, he can grapple, and he can strike. Actually, I think Ankalaev is more of a striker than a grappler. We [saw] him; he hurt Pereira] in the fight. Alex didn’t hurt him. I’m going to tell you something, when you have the confidence to hurt people or you start knocking people out, it’s a feeling.”
Ankalaev is undefeated in his past 14 fights, including his unanimous decision victory over Pereira in their first meeting back in March.
Since that time, Ankalaev has been rather vocal about trying to get the rematch against Pereira scheduled sooner than later, with hopes that he could stay active as champion.
Abdelaziz obviously has confidence that Ankalaev is going to successfully defend his title and stay champion for quite some time now that he’s finally got his hands on the belt.
“I think Ankalaev right now is going to be very dangerous,” Abdelaziz said. “And remember, Alex is 38 years old. He travels all over the place. He has a great coach. I like his coach a lot. I think he’s a very good guy, but I think this is Ankalaev’s time.
“It should have been Ankalaev’s time. Hunter Campbell, Mick Maynard all the UFC, they was all sandbagging him and now they know what’s coming. They were praying for [Ankalaev] to lose.”