Rarely does a fighter as dominant as Alex Pereira have to explain his strength of schedule, but Poatan has been talking a little more about the man he isn’t fighting than his next challenger.
Pereira is set to defend his UFC light heavyweight title on Saturday, October 5, at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. Pereira will defend his title against No. 8-ranked Khalil Rountree Jr. in the UFC 307 main event, and many have questioned why Pereira isn’t defending his title against the No. 1 contender, Magomed Ankalaev.
The timelines for a matchup with Ankalaev would seemingly match. Ankalaev is facing Aleksandr Rakic three weeks later in Abu Dhabi. There have been some disparities in the details as Pereira and Ankalaev seem to differ in opinion when asked why their fight isn’t happening.
Pereira spoke with veteran combat sports journalist Kevin Iole on the latter’s YouTube channel. Pereira told Iole he was “surprised” the UFC gave him the fight with Rountree.
Ankalaev appears to be as logical of a next opponent for Pereira as there is in the sport today. No current No. 1 contender in the UFC deserves a title shot more than Ankalaev. He is essentially on or above the level of Tom Aspinall and Arman Tsarukyan when it comes to title-shot worthiness.
According to Pereira, he was willing to fight Ankalaev, but Dana White and the UFC were the ones that turned down the concept of a title fight between the two men.
“You gotta sort that out with the organization,” Pereira said in the interview with Iole. “Bro, honestly, it’s not my fault that Ankalaev have such a poor style of fighting that nobody want to watch. I want to fight the guy, he wants to fight me. When they put the fight together, we’ll see. People talk about my ground fight, there is a good chance for me to go and show everybody.”
Ankalaev responded on X: “Alex have 6 KO in ufc I have 6 KO He know why he’s not fighting me and Fighting the number eight guy let’s be real focus on your fight. I will do the same. We will see after if you will accept good luck, champ.”
It seems Ankalaev is ready to focus all of his attention on Rakic, an opponent he will be favored to destroy and to wait for his opportunity to face Pereira–should he defeat Rountree.
Last month, former light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier said the UFC was “protecting its golden goose” by keeping Pereira away from Ankalaev.
Pereira has risen to become one of the top stars in combat sports, and Cormier’s suggestions that the UFC isn’t in a hurry to have him dethroned by a wrestle-heavy, low-charisma guy like Ankalaev aren’t without merit.
Pereira has been beaten once in the UFC, which came at Israel Adesanya’s hands in their MMA rematch. Aside from that, the only other time Pereira has looked human in the UFC was against Jan Blachowicz in the former’s light heavyweight debut. Pereira escaped with a split-decision win, but it wasn’t easy as Blachowicz used his size, strength, and smothering top game to try to nullify his opponent’s elite stand-up skills.
There is a reason to believe we could have a similarly smothering gameplan from Ankalaev. If Pereira can defeat Rountree–which might not be as easy as some expect–the clash with Ankalaev is inevitable.
