Ali Abdelaziz Suggests ‘High Level’ Opponent for Alex Pereira After Dominant UFC 303 Victory

Ali Abdelaziz is pushing for Alex Pereira to take on Magomed Ankalaev!

The Brazilian is fresh off a dominant win against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303, who he took out with ease, showing off his superior striking and power. Ankalaev, meanwhile, has been wanting this fight for a long time now and Abdelaziz has just suggested him as the high level opponent that ‘Poatan’ needs to fight.

Ali Abdelaziz is the manager of the likes of world champions like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, and Kamaru Usman and as such, he knows how to make big fights for his fighters.

So it comes as no surprise that the Egyptian executive is hyping up the Dagestani light heavyweight to convince Pereira to give him a title shot.

“Magomed Ankalaev is the best light heavyweight on the planet him and Alex Perreira is a high level fight, big respect to the champ“

 

Magomed Ankalaev is the best light heavyweight on the planet him and Alex Perreira is a high level fight, big respect to the champ

— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) June 30, 2024

Abdelaziz does make a strong case; Ankalaev is definitely one of the best fighters in the division. However, the champ himself has called him a ‘boring’ fighter, so he will have to do something to prove the Pereira wrong.

Earlier, following Pereira’s impressive win, Ankalaev had fired up a series of tweets where he had claimed that he would test the champion’s chin and not go for takedowns.

Magomed Ankalaev says he will knock out Alex Pereira, and says his “chin is gone” #UFC303 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/xwshDFHo4b

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 30, 2024

However, right now, Pereira is riding a high unlike any other. He remains steadfast in his ambition of capturing the heavyweight title and become the company’s first ever three division champion.

And given the way he planned on finishing off Prochazka, Jon Jones should be really worried.

Poatan deciphered Prochazka after watching him train on Instagram

While the UFC account showed Alex Pereira singing and dancing in the locker room ahead of his fight, the real story was very different.

They were coming up with last-minute game plans that ended up winning them the fight. His coach Plinio Cruz made a big revelation after the win in a backstage interview about how the team looked at Prochazka’s video.

Pereira figured out Jiri was putting his hand down after checking kicks and this is where the champion decided to kick about 5 ft higher in the midst of all those leg kicks.

“When I showed the video to Alex, Alex let me see the video again, he goes when he’s doing this he’s putting his hands down. I’m gonna kick this guy in the head.”

 

Alex Pereira saw Jiri Prochazka warming up on Instagram before the fight and noticed his hands dropping when he checked the kick. This was what helped him throw the head kick that knocked Jiri out #ufc303 #ufc pic.twitter.com/qnHlwLHW7l

— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma) June 30, 2024

To be fair though, Jiri does keep his hand down a lot, even when he’s not checking kicks, so the tactic might have worked either way. The Czech fighter depended on his head movement to evade punches but there’s so only so much you can do about a kick when your hands are down.