Pros React To Ankalaev Beating Pereira – ‘Garbage Decision’
MMA pros gave their take on Magomed Ankalaev defeating Alex Pereira to become the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion at UFC 313.
Ankalaev secured a unanimous decision victory to end Pereira’s reign as champion, giving the latter his first loss at the weight class: 49-46, 48-47, 48-47. It has disrupted Pereira’s plans of moving up to heavyweight to target a fight against the UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones. Pereira will target a rematch, but it was a fight where Ankalaev had the more eye-catching moments.
The Russian landed a one-two combination, which later set up the left hand that rocked Pereira in round two. Ankalaev also stifled Pereira by using clinches to prevent the champion from landing his punches in the standing up position. However, not everyone was impressed with the scoring, and some were questioning whether it was the right decision.
Reaction
“I can’t even put it into words. This is my dream and it’s right here around my waist. The plan was to pressure, pressure, pressure. Everybody who fights against [Pereira] always counters, but my job was to make sure that I work as number one, and everybody who fights against me becomes the counter-striker, and my plan worked,” Ankalaev
“I knew it would be a war. Every fight of mine is a war. He put some pressure in the second round. I felt some of his strikes but putting me up against the cage, he didn’t really do anything. We followed our strategy. [And] we know that he puts people against the fence and he plays that game.
“Giving him the win with a game plan like that kind of incentivizes people to do that against people. People might say it’s a boring style but when a guy gets a win doing that, it kind of makes people want to do that, too. I hurt him against the fence, the only difference was I was the one against the fence,” Pereira said
Pros
Full Card
Magomed Ankalaev wins against Alex Pereira by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47).
Justin Gaethje wins against Rafael Fiziev by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Ignacio Bahamondes wins against Jalin Turner by submission (triangle choke) at 2:29 of Round 1.
Amanda Lemos wins against Iasmin Lucindo by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Mauricio Ruffy wins against King Green by KO (spinning wheel kick) at 2:07 of Round 1.
Joshua Van wins against Rei Tsuruya by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Brunno Ferreira wins against Armen Petrosyan by submission (armbar) at 4:27 of Round 2.
Carlos Leal wins against Alex Morono by TKO (strikes) at 4:16 of Round 1.
Mairon Santos wins against Francis Marshall by split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28).
Ozzy Diaz wins against Djorden Santos by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
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