Islam Makhachev gets honest about why Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev "deserve to fight one more time"

Islam Makhachev (middle) on Alex Pereira (left) vs. Magomed Ankalaev (right) rematch. [Images courtesy: Getty Images]
Islam Makhachev (middle) on Alex Pereira (left) vs. Magomed Ankalaev (right) rematch. [Images courtesy: Getty Images]

Islam Makhachev recently shared his thoughts on the Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev rematch at UFC 320 and made his case for a potential trilogy fight between them.

Ad

Pereira reclaimed the light heavyweight title with a first-round knockout win over Ankalaev at UFC 320 last month. In the aftermath, Ankalaev's manager claimed that he wasn't at full health going into the fight and suffered from a rib injury that prevented him from training for over a month. In their previous encounter at UFC 313 in March, Ankalaev had beaten Pereira via unanimous decision.

In a recent conversation with streamer Adin Ross (via @ChampRDS on X), Makhachev shared his thoughts on the rematch and explained why the two light heavyweight juggernauts should run it back for the third time. He said:

Ad
"After the fight, everybody told me Ankalaev wasn't training for the last three months. He had a rib injury. When you don't have sparring [sessions] three times a week, it's hard to go to the cage and fight. That's why I think it happened [the TKO loss]. I think they deserve to fight one more time because Ankalaev says, 'I don't want to pull out because I want to save the main event.' He's good [Pereira], but I believe Ankalaev has more skills."
Ad

Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more


Jiri Prochazka on Alex Pereira beating Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320

After the UFC 320 event, Jiri Prochazka shared his thoughts on the Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev rematch and explained why he wasn't surprised to see the Brazilian win.

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Prochazka recalled watching Pereira training for the Ankalaev rematch at the UFC PI and said:

"No, no, I was not so surprised. Because when I saw Alex in the [UFC Performance Institute] and I saw how he was in shape and how his training was going. And yeah, I saw the spirit of Alex and I saw the spirit of Ankalaev, then I said to myself, 'Man, this is like another story than before. Their first fight, what I watched, it was really like, I said to myself, 'Man, that's something bad with him because he’s just keeping himself a little bit back.' So, I'm happy that he won, but that's all."

Quick Links

Edited by Nishant Zende.
Sportskeeda logo
Close menu
WWE
WWE
NBA
NBA
NFL
NFL
MMA
MMA
Tennis
Tennis
NHL
NHL
Golf
Golf
MLB
MLB
Soccer
Soccer
F1
F1
WNBA
WNBA
down arrow icon
More
bell-icon Manage notifications