Alex Pereira’s UFC 320 KO win over Magomed Ankalaev didn’t surprise former foe

An ex-foe of Alex Pereira isn’t surprised that “Poatan” regained the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship by knocking Magomed Ankalaev out.

Pereira had lost the 205-pound gold to Ankalaev back in March. He got his revenge in the main event of UFC 320. “Poatan” stopped Ankalaev quickly in the opening frame.

During an interview with MMAFighting.com, Jiri Prochazka explained why Pereira’s victory wasn’t shocking to him.

”No, no, I was not so surprised,” Prochazka told MMA Fighting. “Because when I saw Alex in the [UFC Performance Institute] and I saw how he was in shape and how his training was going. And yeah, I saw the spirit of Alex and I saw the spirit of of Ankalaev, then I said to myself, ‘Man, this is like another story than before.’

“Their first fight, what I watched, it was really like, said to myself, ‘Man, that’s something bad with him because he’s just keeping himself a little bit back. So, so I’m happy that he won, but that’s all.”

Prochazka suffered two defeats against Pereira, both being title fights. Prochazka also competed on the UFC 320 card, pulling off a comeback knockout win over Khalil Rountree.

Prochazka has said that he hopes to get a third chance to prove he can get the better of “Poatan.” At the moment, Pereira is in search of a heavyweight fight against Jon Jones on the planned UFC White House card. UFC CEO Dana White has publicly said he doesn’t plan on discussing fights for the event internally until Feb. 2026.

White has also said that he’d prefer it if Pereira sticks with the light heavyweight division. Rising contender Carlos Ulberg has emerged as a potential challenger for Pereira. One can’t rule out a trilogy fight between Pereira and Prochazka despite the fact that the rivalry has been one-sided to this point.