Magomed Ankalaev is opening up on how difficult it was to lose his light heavyweight title to Alex Pereira.
Ankalaev took the belt off Pereira in March of 2025, winning a grueling five round war against “Poatan.” Seven months later, the two fought again, and this time Pereira steamrolled Ankalaev, TKOing him in just over a minute.
Immediately after that loss, Ankalaev’s manager revealed that his fighter had gone into that bout with broken ribs that kept him from training for a month. In a new video
from Anatomy of a Fight, Magomed’s head coach Sukhrab Magomedov confirmed these claims.
“In our last fight, when we lost the belt, we made an emotional decision,” Sukhrab said. “We didn’t want to let the promotion down, so we believed we could fight despite the injuries. But things didn’t go according to plan.”
“We won’t rush things any more. We’ll do everything we can to make sure he goes into every fight 100% healthy and in peak condition. We’ll try to do everything the right way.”
Ankalaev hasn’t spoken publicly about any injuries, but he did discuss the mental effect losing his belt had on him with MMA Fighting.
“It must have been the worst day of my life,” Ankalaev said via a Russian translator. “I lost the fight, I lost the belt, and it was really hard for me to get back here. But the time has been taken, the work’s been down, and I’m back a different person. I think what people will see this time around is a whole different fighter.”
“It must have been about a month that I was down on myself and I couldn’t get myself to go back to the gym and stuff like that,” he added. “But then I got myself together and I got back into the gym, and I think I’m in the best shape that I’ve been, ever. The best shape of my life.”
Ankalaev faces Bogdan Guskov, who is a last-minute replacement for Khalil Rountree Jr, at UFC Abu Dhabi this Saturday, July 25th. All the fighters have made weight and all there is left to do now is step into the cage and fight.
