Former champion reveals UFC 320 main event fight | MMA News
Magomed Ankalaev ended Alex Pereira‘s mild heavyweight title reign at UFC 313 in March. The two run it back in the UFC 320 main event on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Pereira gained the 205-pound championship at UFC 295 in November 2023 by knocking out former titleholder Jiri Prochazka. He efficiently defended the belt 3 times before going up against Ankalaev.
Ankalaev was in a position to largely nullify Pereira’s placing in the first assembly with counters and staggered the Brazilian late in the second spherical. He gained via unanimous deciosn and former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has a exhausting time seeing a different consequence in the rematch.
“The more I look into this fight, the more that I try to pave a path of victory for Pereira in my head, how does he beat Ankalaev, the less certain I am of him being able to do it,” Whittaker said on the MMArcade Podcast.
“What would Pereira need to do to have turned around the first fight? He needs to move forward, be less hesitant. I feel like he wasn’t leading the dance. Pereira doesn’t fight as well going backward as he does going forward,” Whittaker continued. “What made him so dangerous to the guys he knocked out consecutively was the fact that he was hunting them the whole time. The only time he didn’t look like that was when Khalil (Rountree) took it to him in that first round.”
“Ankalaev was putting pressure on him, giving him different looks, attempting the takedown. Whether he was actually seriously going for it or not, but he was making Pereira work. He was creating different looks for him to make him hesitant and not be on the front foot.”
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Conventional knowledge may advise Pereira to transfer ahead and take the fight to Ankalaev, but Whittaker would not know if that’s the best plan of motion.
“What does Pereira need to do? He needs to go forward. He needs to be the hunter, the aggressor. He needs to get behind his punches. Believe in that to try and land those hits to start those impact shots to change the pace of the fight so he can lead the dance and start picking him apart.
“But if he does that, perhaps Ankalaev would not just attempt 11 takedowns. Maybe one of them land,” he said. “In that first fight, if Ankalaev would have gotten him down for a spherical, that appears very different, that fight.”
“I ponder, is transferring ahead, is being more aggressive with his punches, getting behind his punches, is that the best choice because Ankalaev does go under him this time, does take him down. It’s tough. It’s going to be a exhausting fight. It’s going to be a very exhausting fight for Alex.”
“Styles make fights. I believe Ankalaev has the ability set to beat Pereira,” Whittaker said. “I’ve Ankalaev (profitable).”
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