Alex Pereira stuffed all 12 of Magomed Ankalaev's takedown attempts Saturday in their bout for the light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 313 before 18,869 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
That fact alone might convince one that Pereira, the sport's most powerful striker, won the bout.
But judges Mike Bell (48-47), Derek Cleary (48-47) and Sal D'Amato (49-46) thought otherwise and Ankalaev earned a hard-fought unanimous decision to win the light heavyweight title. I had it 48-47 for Pereira, giving the former champion Rounds 1, 3 and 5.
Just over two years earlier, an angry Ankalaev stormed out of the same ring on Dec. 10, 2022, at UFC 282 was called a split draw. On Saturday, though, his grappling and forward pressure were the difference in a close and grueling bout.
"It's been a long time coming," said Ankalaev, who was submitted by Paul Craig with one second remaining in his UFC debut and has since gone 12-0-1 with a no-contest. "I can't put this into words. It's been such a long wait and here's my dream. It's on my waist."
Pereira attacked the legs early and took the first round on all three cards as Ankalaev wasn't able to close the gap. But Ankalaev forced Pereira, one of the UFC's most offensive-minded fighters, to back up in the second and wobbled him badly with a punch just before the bell.
He out-grappled him for long stretches on the cage, particularly in the last three rounds, and that had an impact on the judging. Predictably, Pereira didn't like the style of the fight.
"He put me up against the cage, but he didn't really do anything," a frustrated Pereira said.
Pereira said nothing specific went wrong.
"We followed our strategy [because] we knew that he puts people against the cage and he plays that game," Pereira said. "But giving him that win, with that game plan, it kind of incentives people to do that against me. People might say it's a boring style, but you know, when a guy gets a win, doing that kind of makes people want to do that, too."