UFC 320 blew the roof off T-Mobile Arena last past weekend (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025) in Las Vegas, Nevada, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Cory Sandhagen, who was out-gunned
by Bantamweight roost-ruler, Merab Dvalishvili, in his first and only title fight to date (see it again here).
And Josh Emmett, who suffered his second straight loss and dropped to 1-5 in his last four fights after getting submitted by Youssef Zalal in the first round (see it again here). But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Coming into his heated 205-pound rematch against former division champion, Alex Pereira, Ankalaev had all of the confidence in the world after dethroning “Poatan” earlier this year (more on that here). Despite Pereira being “sick and injured” in their first fight at UFC 313, Ankalaev wasn’t sweating the towering Brazilian since he handled him just six months ago.
Unfortunately for the bruising Russian, he never got the chance to get going.
From the jump, Pereira came out to the center of the cage and started swinging away. It was an obvious change of approach because “Poatan” spent the majority of the first fight backing up. This time around, the former UFC Middleweight champion of the world “champ-champ” was determined to impose his will and gameplan from the jump.
During one of the brief striking exchanges, Pereira clipped Ankalaev, which forced him to shoot with a lazy takedown attempt. After it was quickly stuffed, he wound up on his back with Pereira dropping one big shot after another. When it wasn’t a hellacious 12-6 elbow cracking his ribs, it was a wicked wig splitter coming straight for his forehead. In the end, referee, Herb Dean, had seen enough and put an end to the fight just 85 seconds in.
And if you’re wondering if the stoppage was early … don’t. Ankalaev didn’t protest, which means he knew there was no way he was going to survive the onslaught (highlights here).
“If Allah tested me with defeat, then He wants to toughen me,” Ankalaev wrote on social media after the defeat. “I bow to His will, but not to difficulties. To those who stayed — thank you. To those who turned out, thank you too. After all, Allah clears the way not only of weakness, but also of unnecessary people.”
As far as where Ankalaev goes from here, a fight against Jiri Prochazka seems like the appropriate matchup to make. While some may say a trilogy fight against Pereira is the fight to make, the way he lost the rematch pretty much throws that idea out the window. A fight against Prochazka — who stopped Khalil Rountree on UFC’s 320 PPV main card — would be a fresh one. And since both of them last lost to “Poatan,” they have to face off to see who can potentially see him again in a third title fight.
Unless, of course, you have a better idea?
