It’s now well established that Alex Pereira fought through an injury and was compromised in his first matchup with Magomed Ankalaev earlier this year, but could the same be true of Ankalaev in their recent rematch?
Ankalaev won a unanimous decision over Pereira to claim the light-heavyweight title at UFC 313 back in March but Pereira dominated the rematch at UFC 320 this past weekend, earning a technical knockout victory in just over a minute.
Ankalaev’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, suggested in a lengthy post on social media that if it were up to him Ankalaev wouldn’t’ve made the walk to the cage for the rematch.
“There’s a lot of things happened with Ankalaev in his camp,” Abdelaziz posted. “But, it’s for him to talk about. Not me. And if I need to talk about it, I will talk about it. If it was up to me, he should never have fought due to some things. But he’s a grown man, he makes his own decisions, and he lives by his actions. Congratulations to Alex and his team.”
Abdelaziz, one of the most prominent managers in mixed martial arts, didn’t specify whether it was potentially injury-related or something else entirely with Ankalaev.
In the leadup to the event, Pereira expressed some frustration with a few comments Ankalaev made on social media. Abdelaziz is known to assist his fighters with their social media accounts and there was speculation that he might’ve been posting on behalf of Ankalaev and that the comments Pereira disliked were not directly from Ankalaev.
“Everything Ankalaev said on his social media, he approved it,” Abdelaziz added. “And if I did help him, it was (with) his knowledge. But, at the end of the day, we are in a fighting business. … Alex was the best man on Saturday night. And we take our losses like men. We move on. I don’t have any problems with Alex. I respect everything he accomplished.”
Based on how one-sided the rematch was, it’s unlikely a trilogy bout will be considered in the immediate future.
Ankalaev had a 14-fight unbeaten streak snapped that included wins over Aleksander Rakic, Johnny Walker, Anthony Smith, Volkan Oezdemir plus a draw with fellow former champion Jan Blachowicz. The 33-year-old from Dagestan, Russia is 20-2-1 in mixed martial arts with one no-contest.
Pereira rises, Ankalaev falls in pound-for-pound rankings
Not only did Alex Pereira regain the light-heavyweight title at UFC 320, but the Brazilian star also leapfrogged a handful of fighters on the organization’s pound-for-pound list. “Poatan” moved up to No. 6 and now sits behind fellow titleholders Ilia Topuria, Islam Makhachev, Merab Dvalishvili, Khamzat Chimaev and Alexandre Pantoja.
Meanwhile, Ankalaev dropped outside the top 10 but after falling multiple spots. He sits No. 11 ahead of Max Holloway, Belal Muhammad, Arman Tsarukyan and Shavkat Rakhmonov who round out the top 15. Ankalaev and Jiri Prochazka are the top-ranked contenders in the 205-pound division behind Pereira.
from Sportsnet.ca
via i9bet
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