Ankalaev says he doesn't need to be 100 per cent to beat Alex Pereira at UFC 313

Magomed Ankalaev’s first opportunity to challenge for the UFC light-heavyweight championship came on short notice and ended in controversial fashion.

Initially paired off with Jan Blachowicz in a three-round title eliminator at UFC 282, the bout was elevated to being the five-round main event of 2022’s final pay-per-view card, with the recently vacated title up for grabs. After 25 minutes, many believed the Russian standout had done enough to secure the victory, but the judges felt otherwise, with the bout ending in a rare split draw – one official seeing the fight for Ankalaev, one having it for Blachowicz and the third scoring the bout a draw.

UFC CEO Dana White was not happy with the result and booked another pair of contenders, former champ Glover Teixeira and Jamahal Hill, into a bout for the vacant title a month later at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro, which Hill won by unanimous decision. At the time, it felt like Ankalaev would need no more than one victory to get himself back into the title mix, but that’s not how things played out.

Hill ruptured his Achilles tendon and was forced to vacate the title, just as Jiri Prochazka had done before him, and when the time came to select the combatants to battle for the vacant belt, it was Prochazka and former middleweight champ Alex Pereira that were paired together.

“Poatan” collected a second-round stoppage win to become a two-division champion, establishing himself as one of the most compelling and must-see fighters to ever grace the Octagon in the process.

Meanwhile, Ankalaev was booked against Johnny Walker, who had rebuilt some momentum with a three-fight winning streak. Ever the dutiful solider, Ankalaev accepted his assignment, but the bout with Walker has halted early when an illegal knee rendered the flamboyant Brazilian unable to continue.

Rather than moving forward, Ankalaev was left with unfinished business that he resolved in dominant fashion at the beginning of 2024, once again seemingly putting him in a position to challenge Pereira for the title, but things continued to not come together. 

Pereira accepted a short-notice assignment against Hill at UFC 300, then faced Prochazka in a rematch at UFC 303 before defending his title for a third time against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City.

Less than a month later, Ankalaev was in the Octagon dispatching Aleksandar Rakic, using his time on the microphone following his victory to tell the Brazilian champion to stop running and finally face him.

“It was really frustrating because every time we would ask for the fight, they would tell us, ‘He’s got commitments, other things to do,’ so we would accept other fighters, and as soon as we would accept, he would show up with a fight,” Ankalaev said this week speaking with Sportsnet with the assistance of translator Sergey Nagorny. “It was like, ‘We were the one’s asking for it, so why weren’t we given this opportunity?’”

Thankfully, Ankalaev’s victory in October and final callout of Pereira was enough to make the fight inevitable, with the two men meeting this weekend in the main event of UFC 313 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

It’s been a long, challenging journey for the 32-year-old challenger from Dagestan, but one that has taught him a great deal and delivered him to his second championship opportunity more focused and prepared than he’s ever been before.

“What it taught me is patience, and that you should never, ever give up; you should keep marching towards your goal, and that’s what we did,” he said in regards to the two-year odyssey between his bout with Blachowicz and this weekend’s clash with Pereira, where he enters as the underdog, but with much better odds than the previous opponents that shared the cage with the marauding champion. “We’ve overcome this period that we were put into for the last two years, and now, step-by-step, we finally made it to our goal, and we have to take our goal now.

“At this point, after such a long wait, the motivation is different, the feeling is different; it’s like I deserve this,” continued Ankalaev, who carries a 13-fight unbeaten streak into Saturday night’s main event. “It has been so long, so it’s definitely not going to be sweet for him.”

Finally reaching the point where he’s days away from challenging for UFC gold for a second time is bittersweet for Ankalaev, a devout Muslim being tasked with training and competing during Ramadan.

While some Muslim athletes, including UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad, have always continued to compete during the holy month, Ankalaev has abstained from doing so up to this point, opting instead to focus on the core tenants of the month, including fasting, prayer, reflection, and time with family and community.

"Unfortunately, this is something that we have to do,” he said of competing during Ramadan, which began on February 28 and concludes on March 29 this year. “Ramadan is a holy month — it’s a month of asking for forgiveness, it’s a month of praising The Almighty; where we go more into prayer and spend more time away from fighting and all that stuff.

“We hope that Almighty accepts us, so we don’t want to fight during Ramadan. This is just another challenge that The Almighty gives us, and we have to overcome it, and hopefully with this victory, we’ll have our time to feel the sweetness of victory and defend the belt in other months, but not during the month of Ramadan.”

Despite the obvious encumbrances and challenges facing him, Ankalaev sits just days away from finally sharing the Octagon with Pereira and does so feeling nothing but excitement.

“What I feel is that I am one step away from that place I wanted to get to for a long time, and I can already see it; I just need to make that step to reach it,” the challenger offered when asked how it feels to finally be back in this position, one many believe he’s merited for some time already. “I have a great opportunity, I’m really excited about it, and we’re going to make sure to make that step.”

One of the narratives that emerged as Ankalaev continued to press forward, winning fights in hopes of finally securing this opportunity was that the champion was wary of sharing the cage with him, as the Russian represents the toughest stylistic challenge Pereira has faced to date.

Suggesting Pereira is scared was always absurd, and casting Ankalaev as a wrestling machine like former lightweight ruler Khabib Nurmagomedov is misrepresenting things as well. Though he is the best grappler Pereira has stood across from throughout his UFC career, Saturday’s 205-pound title challenger is more of a jack-of-all-trades than a straightforward wrestler, showing tremendous dexterity with his kicks and a fondness for striking at range, leaning on his wrestling when the time calls for it and taking his opponents down offers the clearest path to victory.

Asked what he needs to do this weekend to unseat the dominant champion, Ankalaev answered with tremendous confidence and unexpected bravado.

“Come out to the fight and do whatever I can to get this victory: show all of my arsenal, all of my weapons; my striking, my wrestling,” he said. “To be honest, I think 50, 60 per cent of what I have is enough to beat him.”

As for how it will feel to defeat Pereira and ascend to the throne, the challenger has yet to think about that just yet, focusing instead on counting down the days until he finally gets the opportunity to share the cage with the dangerous champion and complete his journey to the top of the UFC light-heavyweight division.

“No words to describe it just yet,” he offered, smirking. “For now, it’s the final steps, the final countdown. We’re waiting for me and him to get into the cage, have the door locked behind us, and have this fight, and then we’ll know how to describe it.

“For now, it’s the last couple steps and we’re almost there.”