As Magomed Ankalaev calmly answered questions at the post-fight news conference following his unanimous decision victory Saturday over Alex Pereira to claim the light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 313 at T-Mobile Arena, I was struck by his appearance.
Ankalaev had just gone 25 minutes with Pereira, a man who, in the 330 days between Nov. 11, 2023, and Oct. 5, 2024, had gone 4-0 in light heavyweight championship bouts with four violent, vicious knockouts.
Yet, there was barely a mark upon his face. After spending 25 minutes in the cage with the UFC’s greatest KO artist since Francis Ngannou powered his way to the heavyweight title, Ankalaev looked like he’d just been out for a light jog on a cool spring night.
As Ankalaev spoke, the only indication he’d been in a fight was some very mild reddening under his left eye. There were no cuts or contusions, and even the hairs on the top of his head were perfectly combed.
He did the fighting equivalent of walking a tightrope between skyscrapers during a windstorm with no net to save him.
Pereira had become the biggest star in the UFC, not just because of his quiet humility, but because he had turned the Octagon into his own personal execution chamber. He left battered and beaten bodies in his wake like a young Mike Tyson.
Ankalaev, though, not only stood in front of Pereira for most of the 25 minutes of the fight, but he more often than not was pushing Pereira backward.
“My plan was to have [Pereira] work and then counter him,” Ankalaev said. “But it seems that in the middle of the fight, he switched. During the fight sometime, he switched and he became a counter puncher.
“I don’t know why. He wasn’t letting me work. He wasn’t working himself. It seems as though all the people who are coming out to fight against me, come in as strikers and then end up being counter punchers.”
For all the danger Pereira posed, Ankalaev not only stood in front of him, he repeatedly pushed him backward. And while the judges saw him as the clear winner, the fight itself was anything but simple.
Ankalaev won 48-47 on the cards of Mike Bell and Derek Cleary and 49-46 on Sal D’Amato’s by pushing Pereira back, landing the most telling blows and generally dictating how the bout was fought.
There’s a legitimate argument to make that Pereira had done enough to retain his belt. I scored it for him 48-47, giving Pereira Rounds 1, 3 and 5. The fight hinged on how one scored Rounds 3 and 5.
Pereira’s corner excoriated him after the fourth round and urged him to attack. Little did they know that on the cards, he needed a finish to win, as he trained 39-37 after four on all three cards.
Coaches Glover Teixeira and Plinio Cruz knew, though, it was dangerous for Pereira to continue to retreat.
And Pereira came out pushing forward to start the fifth, only to be backed up for most of the second half of the final round.
“I wouldn’t take anything away from Ankalaev,” UFC CEO/President Dana White said. “He kept pushing forward, even in the fifth round. I was listening on the headphones [after the fourth round] and Alex’s corner was saying, ‘You gotta go after him this round. You have to let everything go. You gotta let your hands go. You gotta try to take him out.’ ”
Frustration creeped into Pereira’s voice. Ankalaev had 5:42 of control time — more than a full round — which he got by backing Pereira to the cage and keeping him there. Referee Marc Goddard broke them once, but he’s one of the best in the world and he saw Ankalaev was doing enough grappling to allow it to continue.
Pereira was never going to win that kind of a fight. If you told a million bettors before the fight Ankalaev would be 0 for 12 in takedowns, you’d probably have gotten 999,999 bets on Pereira to win.
And while Pereira did stuff every takedown attempt, he did so while playing Ankalaev’s game. Every second he spent grappling or trying to fight off a takedown was one he couldn’t be firing those cruise missiles he has on the ends of his arms in Ankalaev’s direction.
He wasn’t thrilled with Ankalaev’s approach, but that’s the sport in a nutshell. Pereira didn’t like the game plan, but Ankalaev didn’t care. The job of a champion isn’t to entertain, it’s to win.
“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.”
Pereira’s a great guy, but he didn’t get those welts on his face while hand fighting Ankalaev. Ankalaev entered the fight with the reputation as a wrestler, even though he had 10 knockouts and nine decisions among his 19 wins entering the bout.
He fought nearly the same bout against Aleksandar Rakic, an elite kick boxer, at UFC 308, as he did against Pereira on Saturday.
Stephen R. Sylvanie/Imagn Images
New UFC light heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev celebrates his win over Alex Pereira.
Pereira’s face was red and bruised, while Ankalaev’s looked like he was ready to go out and grab a bite to eat.
The threat of being taken down blunted his aggressiveness and ultimately cost him his title.
Speaking of threats, Ankalaev faced the most dangerous slugger in the UFC, yet he managed to make Pereira’s biggest weapon a non-factor.
For all the talk of him being a wrestler, the truth is simpler: He’s a winner. Even when his takedowns weren’t landing, he found ways to win the moments that mattered.
He fought to a split draw with Jan Blachowicz in a bid for the vacant title on Dec. 10, 2022, and stormed from the Octagon that night when the verdict was announced.
This time, he strolled back to his locker room, a satisfied grin on his largely unmarked face. He became champion not because his Plan A worked, but because his Plan B did.