UFC champion Alex Pereira made light work of yet another opponent at UFC 303 earlier this year. ‘Poatan’ stepped in on short notice taking on Jiri Prochazka in a rematch. After securing a devastating knockout in the second round, Pereira stated that he wanted to get back into the ring as soon as possible. While most believed that his next fight would be against Magomed Ankalev, recent comments from Anakalev’s manager suggest that there might be something bigger waiting for Pereira.
Rizvan Magomedov is part of Ali Abdelaziz’s management team and represents some of the biggest names in the sport. In a recent interview, he was asked about Anakalev’s future and if he will be fighting Alex Pereira at the Abu Dhabi PPV card that takes place in October this year. Unfortunately for fight fans, Magomedov provided a disappointing update, claiming that although Ankalaev wouldn’t be fighting Pereira, he would step into the octagon in early 2025.
Moreover, while he insisted that Ankalaev should only fight for the title, Magomedov revealed that the UFC had other plans for Pereira, saying,
“As far as I understand the organisation has slightly different plans for Alex Pereira. In order to not stagnate, we already have a date and fight. There will be an announcement soon about when Magomed Ankalaev will fight. After that we will certainly fight for the title.”
Magomed Ankalaev’s manager, Rizvan Magomedov, says the UFC has different plans for Alex Pereira, and says Ankalaev will NOT be fighting Pereira next.
He says Magomed already has an opponent and a date for his next fight, and it will be announced soon.
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The UFC makes its annual trip to the capital of the UAE in October with UFC 308. For the past few years, this card has been headlined by Islam Makhachev or Khabib Nurmagomeodv. However, recent developments suggest Makhachev will not be headlining it.
It was then assumed that Pereira vs Ankalaev would be the next best option. However, with the UFC seemingly having bigger plans for Poatan, fans are intrigued to know what they might be.
Alex Pereira to take a step closer to making history?
Pereira did not take long to achieve a two-weight world champion status in the UFC. Moreover, he has defended his light heavyweight belt twice now. Hence, there were rumors that Pereira wanted to go up in weight and try to be the first UFC champion in three weight classes. In fact, fans led by Joe Rogan pleaded with Dana White to fix a fight between Jon Jones and Pereira, following the latter’s knockout win over Jiri.
If the UFC is working on something bigger for Pereira it could only mean one of two things. The Brazilian fighter is going to take on Tom Aspinall on the same night as Jones vs Miocic as suggested by Aspinall himself, or he is going to be the backup fighter for Jones vs Miocic. It is hard to imagine any other scenario for which the UFC would reserve Alex Pereira.
