Magomed Ankalaev’s coach is predicting a big weekend for his fighter.
This Saturday, Ankalaev defends his light heavyweight title against Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 320. It’s a title rematch
of their UFC 313 fight that saw Ankalaev dethrone Pereira, winning a very close decision. Since then, Pereira and his camp have made much of “Poatan” not being properly prepared for the bout, but Ankalaev’s coach, Sukhrab Magomedov, believes this time around things will be more dominant for his fighter.
“Alex will go for the clinch, wrestle. Why? Because in the stand-up, nothing will work out for him,” Magomedov said on UFC 320 Countdown. “… Alex Pereira, there’s nothing with which he can surprise us. Not his work in the stand-up, in wrestling he definitely cannot surprise. He cannot surprise with anything. His technique is standard, his strikes are standard. He’s an old kickboxer. He has no speed. Powerful punch? Alex has a punch, but not the kind that can really knock you out.
“And I tell everyone, if Magomed opens up, he’ll surprise everyone, and can even outplay, in pure stand-up, a better striker than Alex Pereira.”
In their first fight, Ankalaev did, in fact, out-strike Pereira, winning the bout without scoring a single takedown, and repeatedly tagging “Poatan” with big punches. And on Saturday, Ankalaev expects to do that and more for his rematch.
“From the first fight with Alex, I realized after rewatching it, I saw many moments where I didn’t follow through, where I could have finished him early, where I could have taken him down,” Ankalaev said in the Countdown show. “The fight will be such that we will dominate in it.”
UFC 320 goes down this Saturday in Las Vegas, and also features a bantamweight co-main event title fight between Merab Dvalishvili and Cory Sandhagen.
