Magomed Ankalaev understands anyone suggesting that the UFC is hoping Alex Pereira defeats him on Saturday, but he won’t apologize for spoiling anybody’s plans.
Anakalev challenges Pereira for the light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 313 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Recently, ex-UFC fighter Brendan Schaub said on his podcast that he believes the top of the UFC food chain is hoping Pereira retains his title for the fourth time, mostly to set up possible heavyweight matchups in the future against champs Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall — which Schaub feels won’t happen if Ankalaev wins this weekend.
“If you don’t think the UFC brass is praying to the MMA Gods that Alex wins this fight, good lord, buddy,” Schaub said. “If Ankalaev wins this fight, you do the rematch, but maybe he’s an Achilles’ heel. …
“They can’t create a star out of Ankalaev, you just can’t. Alex is your biggest star. This is his fourth title defense in under a year. … We’ve never seen anything like this. He’s also 37, so there’s not a lot of left juice in that towel to keep squeezing out.”
Ahead of his second championship opportunity, Ankalaev was asked about Schaub’s comments, and if the challenger feels the same way.
“Yeah, of course, I can understand that if he wins this fight that there’s a lot more opportunities that are opening up for him, and there’s a lot more doors that are going to be open for him as a person and as a fighter in general,” Ankalaev told MMA Fighting.
“But it just happened that the destiny put the two of us together and, unfortunately, he’s going to have a real tough time to get to that goal because he’s got me in front of him.”
Ankalaev competed for the title at UFC 282 in December 2022, fighting former champ Jan Blachowicz to a draw. UFC CEO Dana White publicly frowned upon the efforts in the bout, which has led to Ankalaev to have to compete three more times to earn another opportunity to fight for the belt.
Despite being unbeaten in 13 straight fights, Ankalaev watched Pereira defend his title three times in 2024, knocking out Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree during the impressive run. While he appreciates Pereira as a competitor and human being, Ankalaev feels “Poatan” has yet to fight anybody like him.
“It’s very different for him because, obviously he’s great guy, he’s a great fighter, he’s somebody who’s very strong, but he had specific fighters that he fought,” Ankalaev explained. “He fought strikers, he fought people that do not really have [much of a] ground game, and I’m a whole different animal.
“I’m going to be a whole different fighter standing in front of him on Saturday.”
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