Despite Magomed Ankalaev being the #1 contender, UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira somehow managed to evade him throughout a year with three title defenses. But like the sands of an hourglass, time has caught up, and now the Dagestani challenger plans to drown the champ in a week at UFC 313.
It’s not exactly a surprise what Ankalaev’s game plan is. It’s something none of Pereira’s opponents had to offer, for extremely puzzling reasons. But not Ankalaev.
He knows that to win, he must first shut down the champion’s striking, and the best way to do that is to shoot for takedowns and drag him into deeper waters. Pereira does have endless cardio on his feet. But, escaping a well-established mount while also trying to stop a downpour of elbows is akin to swimming against an undercurrent with sharks in pursuit.
It’s just a different ball game. And Ankalaev wants to ensure Pereira knows what’s coming.
A few hours back, Pereira posted a picture showing his customary shaving of the head for a fight. “Pronto pra matar”, he said, which directly translates to ‘Ready to kill’.
Moments later, Ankalaev raised banners of his own. “Training camp’s done,” he posted on X.
He followed it up with a wish for Ramadan but moments later reverted to his plans for the Brazilian champion. “CHAMA is a dead man walking I’m going to drown this man,” Ankalaev declared.
CHAMA is a dead man walking I’m going to drown this man
— Magomed Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM) March 2, 2025
Pereira, on the other hand, is uber confident in his abilities. Interestingly, should he win this fight, he will have beaten a record set by Jon Jones ages ago.
Pereira’s story inevitably clashes with Jones
Pereira and Jones have long expressed their desire to square up against each other in the octagon. And while it is sure to tear the roof of the place, there has not been an organic build to the feud. Jones has Tom Aspinall to worry about, and Pereira still has opponents at light heavyweight to deal with.
Besides, Jones has always been a notch above everyone else, including Pereira, to be a good matchup. So, even though the fight would bring a very loud crowd into the building, it just never made sense. That is, until now…
Pereira has already defended his title thrice in the span of a year. If he beats Ankalaev next weekend, he’ll officially have the fastest four-title defense streak in light heavyweight history — doing it in just 329 days, beating out Jones’ record of 364 days.
Jones defended his belt against Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, and Vitor Belfort in 2011—securing his fourth defense with a nasty keylock submission against Belfort after dislocating his own shoulder mid-fight.
Pereira’s journey to the top has been just as wild. He claimed the vacant light heavyweight belt by stopping Jiří Procházka at UFC 295, then knocked out Jamahal Hill at UFC 300. He followed that up with another finish over Procházka in their UFC 303 rematch and capped it off with a gutsy comeback win over Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307.
Does this already make him an all-time great? How he may have fared during the 2010s, when Jones was rampaging through 205 lbs with Daniel Cormier in pursuit, might make it a heated debate.
But achieving what he has in just 10 fights makes for a compelling argument in the light heavyweight champion’s favor. So, should he win against Ankalaev and Jon defeat Aspinall to unify the heavyweight title, this could be the base on which the feud can be sold by the UFC.
