The UFC is clearly thrilled to have Alex Pereira back as their lightweight champion after “Poatan” ran through Magomed Ankalaev in just over a minute at UFC 320.
How thrilled? They made the unprecedented
decision to upload the full Pereira vs. Ankalaev fight from last night’s ESPN pay-per-view to YouTube for fans to watch for free. In just seven hours, over 4.3 million people have witnessed Pereira stalk Ankalaev down and smash him with strikes and elbows.
The dominant win makes Pereira a three-time UFC champion — once at middleweight and twice at light heavyweight. And the Brazilian fighter may not be done collecting belts: following his win he told media at the UFC 320 press conference that a long-rumored move to heavyweight was imminent.
The full Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev fight features almost all the craziness from their Saturday, October 4th bout. Missing is the walkouts. But you’ve got the Bruce Buffer introductions, the staredowns, the entire fight, the entire finish, and Pereira throwing more Khaby Lame meme hands at a stunned Ankalaev.
It has Jiri Prochazka crying in the background, not because a fighter he’s lost to twice just won the belt back, but because of the pure beauty of violence he just witnessed. It has Pereira walking up to the recovered Ankalaev and dropping the coldest ‘Chama’ we’ve seen yet. It has “Poatan” putting his broken toe (yes, he broke his toe) back into place. And finally, it has Dana White wrapping the belt around the most popular champion the UFC currently has.
For Pereira’s post-fight victory speech including his tribute to Jon Jones’ brother Arthur, you’ll have to go here. And if you want to know what crazy superfight Pereira called for at the UFC 320 presser, you’ll have to go here. But for the first time ever, you won’t have to shell out for the main event of a pay-per-view card to see the main event through official channels just moments after it aired.
