Magomed Ankalaev Calls UFC Champ Alex Pereira’s Left Hook Overrated and Ordinary

Well, someone actually said it. It may be far from the truth and it might have been a matter of time but Ankalaev has called Alex Pereira’s left hook ‘ordinary’.

The same left hook that saw him go from Glory Kickboxing champion to two-division UFC champion in just 3 years. The same left hook that knocked the lights out of Jiri Prochazka, Israel Adesanya, and Sean Strickland. Calling that atom bomb of a left hand ‘ordinary’ may not have been the smartest move on Ankalaev’s part.

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, in an attempt to up the trash talking against the Brazilian, Anklaev] called his striking overrated. He added,

“Just his punches too over rated. He has a standard left hook punch, I don’t see anything in his striking technique.”

The Russian fighter does not seem too impressed with Pereira’s striking. That makes him different from all the UFC fans at the moment, because that’s all the fans seem to be talking about.

Meanwhile, fans know how personally Pereira takes his grudges; take his rivalry with Israel Adesanya for example. That grudge saw him come in and steal Adesanya’s belt, then go on to become a bigger star than him in the UFC in a shorter period of time.

He literally turned the phrase, ‘just some guy at a bar talking about how he beat me once’ on Izzy in a couple of years. Needless to say, Poatan also had something to say!

Especially after his last fight against Jiri Prochazka, ‘Poatan’s’ striking has become something of a legend among the fans. But Ankalaev is not someone to back down from a challenge. In fact, he claims the UFC is offering him the title shot next. So the trash talk worked, it seems

Ankalaev urges Pereira to sign the contract and fight him

Despite calling his punches ‘ordinary’, Ankalaev still wants a shot at Pereira, solely because he holds the highly sought-after light heavyweight UFC belt around his waist.

The Russian fighter recently spoke to TMZ Sports about his next fight as he claims the UFC offered him a title shot and he is waiting on Pereira’s response,

“We are waiting for our contracts to be signed and I think there is no way he escapes this one…As of now it’s in deep negotiations, it’s really up to Pereira to confirm it.”

Ankalaev believes he represents a different challenge for Pereira, which is true since no fighter has really tested the Brazilian’s ground game yet. But it is to be seen if he can get close enough to Poatan to take his back!