Alex Pereira plans to showcase his own grappling skills against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313
Alex Pereira believes the MMA world will get to witness just how good his grappling is at UFC 313.
Pereira is set to put his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at stake against Magomed Ankalaev this Saturday night. The title fight will headline UFC 313 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. A big talking point going into the fight is whether or not “Poatan” can thwart the grappling of Ankalaev.
The top Brazilian champion views this fight as a chance to prove that his grappling is on point.
Pereira Ready to Showcase Grappling at UFC 313
Alex Pereira was interviewed by New York Post ahead of his attempt at a fourth successful light heavyweight title defense. “Poatan” made it clear that he plans to force Magomed Ankalaev to keep the fight standing with some grappling of his own.
“I’m really excited about this fight,” Pereira said. “I think this is going to be a great experience, and I can his words my own as well. Let’s see if he can stand 25 minutes. If he can’t grapple me for 25 minutes, then he’s going to have to stand up, and we all know how that’s going to go. Obviously, I didn’t focus a lot on grappling before I moved to the U.S., but now I’ve been in the U.S. now for about four years training with Glover [Teixeira] and really focused on that and really dedicated on that. So, I think this is a fight that’s going to bring that out of me and make me show everyone what I’ve been doing with my grappling.”
Ankalaev has just one loss in his pro MMA career, and that occurred during his UFC debut back in 2018. Since then, Ankalaev has gone 11-0-1, 1 NC. Meanwhile, Pereira’s lone defeat under the UFC banner was against Israel Adesanya in the middleweight division. He’s defeated the likes of Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka, Jamahal Hill, and Khalil Rountree at 205 pounds.
Can “Poatan” add Ankalaev to his list of victims?
This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
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Alex Pereira Magomed Ankalaev UFC
