Alex Pereira blasts Magomed Ankalaev after unpopular UFC Light Heavyweight defeat: “Boring”

Magomed Ankalaev ended Alex Pereira’s reign as UFC Light Heavyweight champion, emerging victorious by unanimous decision at UFC 313 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday (March 8).

Fan favorite Pereira had won the vacant title by defeating Jiří Procházka at UFC 295 in November 2023, but was stifled by Ankalaev, who became the third fighter from Dagestan to become UFC champion after Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.

Despite the vast majority of the crowd in Nevada being against him, Ankalaev won by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47), calling his victory the belt “his dream”.

The 32-year-old, however, received plenty of criticism following the match for the style of his victory, including from his opponent.

Alex Pereira: “Ankalev didn’t really do anything”

Speaking after the bout via an interpreter, Pereira appeared to be struggling to comprehend how he had lost to Ankalaev, who did his utmost to hold the Brazilian against the cage and make him fight backwards as much as possible.

“He put some pressure in the second round with his strikes, but putting me up against the cage, he didn’t really do anything.

“We followed our strategy. We know he puts people aghast the fence and he plays that game. Giving him the win with a gameplan like that, it incentivizes people to do that. People might say it’s a boring style, but when a guy gets a win doing that, it makes people want to do that too”.

MMA journalist Ariel Helwani described the result as a “nightmare” for the UFC due to the vast difference in popularity between the two fighters.

Ankalaev blasts back as Pereira for “running away”

Ankalaev, meanwhile, hit back following Pereira’s criticism, insisting his rival was just as much to blame if the fight was “boring”.

“Everybody thought that Alex Pereira was the most exciting striker, and you saw the way he fought against me. It seems as though when people come out to fight against me, they all of a sudden become boring. It’s not just dependent on me. It also depends on the dance partner.

“For 20 minutes, this guy was running away from me. I’m happy for a rematch, but maybe in the rematch he can fight for real, not just run away the entire time”.

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