Magomed Ankalaev takes Alex Pereia’s title at UFC 313

Las Vegas – Magomed Ankalaev entered the Octagon as a public enemy No. 1 to the fan favorite Alex Pereira and went on Saturday evening as New Ufc Light Heavyweight Champion in the main event of UFC 313.

Ankalaev hit “Poatan” in the first half of the fight and scored his offensive with clinch work in the second half. His suffocating performance sucked Pereira’s historical title in heavyweight a disappointing ending and sucked the air from the T-Mobile arena in a unanimous decision: two judges achieved 48-47 and a third judge had 49-46.

“I don’t think something surprised me,” said Ankalaev. “I think I could have done better work in the fight, but something just didn’t work out. But I am still really glad that I won.”

UFC President Dana White said afterwards that an immediate reservance will probably happen “probably”.

Pereira (14-3), who rose to fame in the past year and a half, had the chance to write history by being the first UFC fighter to achieve five times in less than 500 days. However, he got nothing going when Ankalaev (20-1-1) forced him to fight his back for a large part of the fight. The pressure prevented Pereira from signing his left hook and became the search for counter opportunities that Ankalaev never gave him.

Pereira intentionally aimed at Ankalaev’s legs with calf kicks in the opening round in the hope of affecting the mobility of the challenger. It was a solid start when 11 of 14 legs landed, but Ankalaev stayed on the front foot.

Ankalaev changed the swing in the second round when he surprisingly hit Pereira. A left hand pereemed Pereira halfway through the round and a right hand rocked it in the last seconds.

When the fight continued and Pereira went back to the scorecards, Ankalaev changed the champion with clinch work and use the Takedown threat to push Pereira against the cage fence and to put it down. The strategy worked and Pereira seemed to be unsafe in the corner before round 5.

“We know that he puts people against the fence and he plays this game, but he gives him victory with such a game plan. It drives people to do this against people,” said Pereira in his interview after the fighting fighter in Octagon. “People may say that it is a boring style, but when a man gets a victory, people want to do that too.”

However, the style was more than effective, and in the last round Ankalaev seemed to be on the way to victory. Ankalaev played it safe by being outside of a considerable punishment of a desperate Pereira. When Pereira finally landed the left hand, it didn’t do much. The blow brought the crowd onto the legs, but Ankalaev raved in immediately, glued and hindered every swing swing when the last seconds.

In his press conference after the fight, Ankalaev Pereia’s assessment of the fight contained and said he was the clear attacker.

“I continued, I pushed him on and he continued to ran in front of me,” said Ankalaev. “This guy ran away for 20 minutes. I heard at the end of the fight, he said he was not sure why the victory was administered to me. Who should win?

“Listen, I am happy to receive a reservations if he wishes a reserves, but maybe he could really fight in the reservations and not just run away all the time.”

Pereira landed more strikes than Ankalaev (108-102), but 48 of these strikes were leg kicks that did not affect the fight. Although Ankalaev was 0: 12 during Takedown attempts, his control time of 5 minutes, 42 seconds, was the difference in battle.

Ankalaev’s victory ended a historical rule of Pereira. The Brazilian won the title of light heavyweight in November 2023 and defended it three times in 2024 when he quickly rose to fame, with each co -win was more impressive than the last.

Ankalaev, however, was always the most dangerous threat to Pereira after having become undefeated in the Octagon since his UFC debut in 2018. When they finally got into the Octagon, Ankalaev showed why he is known as “The Boogeyman” of the 205 pound division.

Ankalaev extends its unbeaten stripes in a light heavyweight to 14, the second in the UFC story to Jon Jones.

Although the crowd broke out, it was clear that there was a new leader of the light heavyweights.