Outside Source
Alex Pereira says he wasn’t 100 percent at UFC 313. | Getty/UFC
Alex Pereira didn’t look like himself in his first meeting with Magomed Ankalaev earlier this year.
Perhaps part of that can be attributed to Ankalaev being a difficult matchup, but according to the Brazilian, there were more factors involved.
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“Honestly, I was about 40 percent for that fight, on that night,” Pereira said through a translator on“The Brian Campbell Experience” (transcription via MMAjunkie.com). “And obviously it’s going to be much more this time. But if I’m only 50 percent, that 10 percent is going to make such a great difference. I’m going to leave no doubt for everybody.”
After successfully defending the light heavyweight title three times, Pereira dropped a unanimous decision to Ankalaev at UFC 313 in March. While it was expected that the Dagestani would have a significant advantage through his wrestling, “Poatan” was able to defend all 12 of his opponent’s takedown attempts over the course of 25 minutes. As a result of that success, Ankalaev recently implied that Pereira may have been greasing in the fight.
“I think he don’t like because I was able to prove that he’s not that good,” Pereira said. “I’m a striker, he’s a grappler. He’s supposed to be taking me down, but I was able to show to everybody that he’s not that great.”
Pereira Took Some Positives from UFC 313 Defeat
However, Ankalaev was able to outland Pereira on the feet to get the nod on the judges’ scorecards. While the former two-division champion declined to reveal what exactly was ailing him some six months ago, he was able to take some positives from that performance.
“Dealing with [losing] is not cool. But honestly, if I put together everything that was going on with me, and I’m not going to say it right now, it makes me happy that I was able to do the fight that I did with everything that was going on with me,” he said. “Of course I’m not happy with the loss, but with the way that I fought, I’m actually even surprised that I was able to fight like that with everything that was going on.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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