Dana White suggested following UFC 313 that an immediate rematch between new light-heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev and popular former champ Alex Pereira will “probably” be next.
The UFC president said the five-round bout that ended in a unanimous decision victory for Ankalaev was “not what I expected. I expected a lot more shooting. I expected a lot more exchanges.”
Ankalaev told reporters at his post-fight press conference that he never picks his opponents and he’ll be happy and ready to face Pereira later this year for his first title defence if that’s what the UFC offers next.
The 32-year-old from Dagestan, who’s now riding a 14-fight unbeaten streak, went 0-for-12 on takedown attempts but still managed to accumulate 5:42 of cage control time and had decent success striking against Pereira who was entering the contest on a five-fight winning streak and four straight knockouts.
Pereira began his UFC career as a middleweight in 2021 and won the title in 2022 when he defeated Israel Adesanya, a longtime rival of the Brazilian from their kickboxing days. Adesanya won the immediate rematch by knockout five months later and "Poatan" moved up from the 185-pound division to the 205-pound ranks.
The 37-year-old became the UFC’s ninth two-weight champion when he won the light-heavyweight title in 2023 after moving up in weight.
Pereira released a statement following his second UFC loss.
“That’s it, everyone. Some marks (on my face), but I’m good,” he said in a message on social media. “Gonna rest a bit. I’ll be back like I’ve always done. This has already happened. … Gonna make some adjustments for the rematch, and I’ll be back much better. You can count on it.
While the result was met with boos from the crowd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, it was more due to the nature of the second half of the fight rather than the final decision being deemed controversial or incorrect.
One judge scored the fight four rounds to one (49-46) for Ankalaev while the other two judges saw it three rounds to two (48-47) for the new champ.
White added that he thought Ankalaev won the fight and “wasn’t shocked” when he heard the decision.
Pereira had risen to No. 3 on the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings prior to the loss.
Ankalaev, who will likely soon debut in the P4P rankings, became the fourth Russian-born UFC champion joining Khabib Nurmagomedov, Petr Yan and current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
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