Magomed Ankalaev isn’t ready to let the Alex Pereira loss go. In an interview with Bostanov MMA, shared Monday by Championship Rounds on X, the Dagestani light heavyweight called the stoppage a fluke and said the fight between them is still open.
“His business with me isn’t settled at all,” Ankalaev said. “You could call what happened a lucky punch. That’s how he beat me.”
He went further than sour grapes. Ankalaev said he believes Pereira’s team knew he was carrying an injury into the cage, and that this explained how fast Pereira came at him. He didn’t name the injury. He described it only as “some kind of injury.”
View post on X
“I don’t think any fighter had ever rushed at me like that before,” he said. “If he hadn’t known I was injured, I don’t think it would have ended so quickly.”
A rematch isn’t on the table right now, mostly because Pereira has moved on to a different division and a different set of grievances. He lost to Ciryl Gane at UFC White House and has spent the months since arguing that Gane landed illegal strikes to the back of his head. In this week’s MMA Fighting mailbag, Jed Meshew wrote that Pereira has a legitimate case on the fouls but questioned what he gains by continuing to press it, noting that the complaints didn’t earn him another title shot and turned off some of his fans. Meshew also pointed to Pereira picking a fight with Daniel Cormier. Pereira is now booked against Sergei Pavlovich at heavyweight and has talked about fighting for a title if he wins, still chasing a third UFC belt.
On a lighter note, Pereira spent the weekend posting clips of himself filming while driving his new Lamborghini. He doesn’t seem to be losing sleep over Ankalaev.
View post on X
Ankalaev may have a new target anyway. In a separate part of the same Bostanov MMA interview, he said there has been talk of a fight with former middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis at 205.
“There’s some talk about Dricus du Plessis. He wants to move up, and it’s possible they’ll arrange a fight between us,” Ankalaev said. “It’s a good fight for me, and I’m interested in it myself.”
No bout has been announced, and Ankalaev described it only as the information his side has for now.
View post on X
My take: Ankalaev’s two arguments cancel each other out. A lucky punch is something that falls out of the sky. A fighter who sprints across the cage because he believes his opponent is compromised is following a plan, and if Pereira really did that, the finish was the opposite of luck. Ankalaev is also the second man in this rivalry stuck replaying a loss, right as Pereira gets mocked for doing the same thing over Gane. The better argument for Ankalaev is to make the du Plessis fight happen and beat a former champion convincingly. That would earn him a second Pereira fight faster than any interview could.
