Outside Source
Alex Pereira reclaimed the light heavyweight crown with an 80-second technical knockout victory over Magomed Ankalaev in Saturday’s main event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “Poatan” rocked his Dagestani rival with an overhand right, then forced the stoppage with a serie of vicious elbows on the canvas. It was a far cry from their first meeting, when Ankalaev earned a tactical, five-round verdict over Pereira at UFC 313 this past March.
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Heading into the rematch, Aspinall predicted that Ankalaev would prevail once again, but the UFC’s heavyweight king had no problem admitting his assessment was incorrect.
“What’s that? One minute, 20 [seconds] something like that? Pereira just absolutely ran through him,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “Look, I was wrong. I was wrong. That’s very, very, very impressive. He made some good adjustments technically where he was putting [Ankalaev] on the back foot more than he was in the first fight. In the first fight, he was guessing what Ankalaev was going to do constantly. Whereas in this fight, Pereira is just constantly keeping him guessing, walking him backwards, making him feel threatened. Ankalaev couldn’t get anything off. Pereira is back.”
Options Wide Open for ‘Poatan’
After his triumph, Pereira suggested that a heavyweight move was imminent. However, the Brazilian dismissed the possibility of facing the winner of the title clash between Aspinall and Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 on Oct. 25. Instead, “Poatan” targeted a meeting with Jon Jones at the White House. If Pereira remains at 205 pounds, Carlos Ulberg appears to be the next logical contender.
“Who’s next for Pereira? See what he wants to do,” Aspinall said. “Ulberg has just won. Ulberg’s very good. I know he’s been talking about coming to heavyweight, so see what the UFC wants to do.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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