Amid the coronation of Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 this weekend, promotional boss Dana White is now in for a headache. Or so former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub claims.
Even in the lead-up to the light heavyweight title fight at UFC 313, much had been speculated about Ankalaev’s potential reign as the 205 lb champ. The consensus, backed by his opponent for the evening, Alex Pereira, was that he would be boring.
Unfortunately, his fight against Pereira last weekend didn’t do much to dispel those speculations. However, it should be noted that Pereira must take the majority of the hits on that one. The Brazilian looked uneasy and weirdly subdued, and never quite tried to force the issue as he has done so many times in the past.
Regardless, once the fight was over, Pereira claimed Ankalaev inflicted very little damage on him and pointed to the fact he stuffed an impressive 11 different takedowns through the clash.
And now, it seems Schaub is compounding on the opinion and cashing in on a very ‘casuals’ sentiment.
Firstly, Schaub believes Pereira won the contest on Sunday and had him win rounds one, three, and five.
“You ain’t sh*t. Mondays, if you don’t have Alex winning the first, third- the third is all I can debate with you. I get the debate for winning the round for Alex. If you don’t have Alex winning one and five, you don’t know the f*cking sport.”, he said on his podcast.
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Furthermore, Schaub doesn’t think it bodes well for the promotion that a star like Pereira no longer gets to represent them.
“It’s a nightmare for the UFC that he (Magomed Ankalaev) won,” Schaub explained. “A nightmare. Look at Dana’s (White) face. You can tell by his face. He’s looking at Bruce Buffer, and he just goes, ‘F*ck.’ It’s a nightmare that Ankalaev’s the champ.“, he added.
It would appear Schaub has been on MMA Twitter for too long since the fight, a reflection of the widely popular, vocal stance he’s taken on the subject.
However, Ankalaev might be an entertaining champion, it would have to depend on who the promotion pairs him up with next. At this point, it seems like Pereira for a rematch is the only answer.
Ankalaev already agrees to Pereira rematch next
As far as Pereira is concerned, holding against the fence should not warrant a successful title charge. “Putting me up against the cage, he (Magomed Ankalaev) didn’t really do anything,” he said his post-fight interview.
“Giving him the win with a gameplan like that, it incentivizes people to do that.”, the former champion lectured after the debilitating loss.
However, while every Pereira fan argued the result, it was more than just control time that swayed the judges. Deep into the second round, the Russian landed the biggest strike of the fight by far, causing a near-knockdown before Pereira was saved by the buzzer.
Ankalaev even outstruck Pereira in significant strikes. Shockingly, the Brazilian was so gun-shy that in five rounds, he could only manage to land only 11 head shots compared to Ankalaev’s 36.
That said, the UFC brass would like to see an immediate rematch next. And the incumbent champion appears all ears to that idea, urging Pereira to actually fight him this time, however.
“I kept on moving forward. I kept on pressuring him,” Ankalaev said of Pereira.
“And he kept on running away from me. For 20 minutes, this guy was running away from me. Then I heard at the end of the fight that he was saying he wasn’t sure why the victory was given to me. Who are they supposed to give the victory to?“, he added.
“Listen, I’m happy for a rematch if he wants a rematch, but maybe the rematch he can fight for real, not just run away the entire time.”, the champion joked.
Can Pereira dial it up the next time these two fight? It does seem he is all out of choices.
