Alex Pereira’s loss to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 might have been a result of the Dagestani having a better plan and execution but it would appear, Poatan fans can’t stop coming up with excuses. Interestingly, one of his former opponents has also now joined the chorus, claiming that the Brazilian’s aura was off during the fight, attributing to an injury.
Pereira was uncharacteristically gun-shy during the Ankalaev fight. But that credit should ideally go to Ankalaev for taking on his leg kicks and never even flinching, let alone reacting like Poatan would have wanted. Had he done that, the Brazilian would have been able to clock him and find a rhythm as he so often had through his three title defenses in 2024.
Instead, ‘Big Ank’ kept closing the distance on him, pressing him closer to the cage, negating Pereira’s power in the process. And that, simply, was enough.
However, Jiri Prochazka, who has already lost to Pereira twice, in an interview with Inside Fighting, claims, the Brazilian was going through something else.
“I saw on Alex, there was something bad, maybe he had some injury or something like that but it was not his day, everybody saw that.”, he said.
Still, Prochazka made sure not to take anything away from Ankalaev’s victory. Even if Pereira was compromised, the Czech warrior acknowledged the Russian earned his win fair and square.
In the meantime, Ankalaev’s team has been busy on social media, claiming Pereira had Vaseline or something greasy on his person during the fight, which is how he managed to stop 11 takedowns.
Interestingly, despite this accusation, Ankalaev himself has asked the UFC for a quick rematch with Pereira and the UFC has seemingly already agreed.
Pereira needs to sign off on Ankalaev rematch
After their UFC 313 fight, Pereira had complained that the UFC had gifted Ankalaev the fight after he had spent 5 rounds hugging him – a categorically untrue statement that has managed to become the running narrative by his fans on social media.
So, despite winning the title, he does feel the need to prove a point here.
So, in that spirit, he has actually asserted that Pereira deserved a rematch and has been vocal about granting him one. And this time, he doesn’t want the fight to go the distance – a statement clearly aimed at proving a point.
“I have a date and I accepted already, I hope my opponent will accept too. This time there will be no 5 rounds, I don’t get paid by the hour”, he tweeted with disdain.
And now, days after his team accused Pereira of lubing up for the fight, ‘Big Ank’ seems to have settled on a date. “August, but please noVaseline”, he practically requested from the former champion.
August, but please #noVaseline
— Muhammad big ANK Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM) March 21, 2025
Earlier, even the UFC bossman had seemingly agreed to a rematch after asserting that the title fight wasn’t a great sight to behold.
“Yeah, it was not what I expected. I expected a lot more shooting, I expected a lot more exchanges. Yeah.“, he had said, adding that the decision win for Ankalaev didn’t come as a surprise to him.
“I don’t know if I had the exact score in my head, but I thought Ankalaev won the fight. I wasn’t shocked when I heard the decision.”, he noted. And as far as the questions about the rematch, White was already sold on it.
So, now all anyone has to do is wait for Pereira to respond by signing the papers and showing up on PPV days. No more horsing around in Australia for the Brazilian.
