Alex Pereira addresses plans after title fight loss to Magomed Ankalaev: ‘There will be a rematch’
Former two-weight champion, Alex Pereira remains confident of landing a rematch with newly-crowned champion, Magomed Ankalaev following his loss at UFC 313 — claiming discussing are already underway for him to fight the Russian in an immediate rematch.
Pereira, a former undisputed middleweight champion, dropped his light heavyweight crown over the weekend in a controversial unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) loss against the surging challenger, Ankalaev.
However, voicing his displeasure with the loss, Sao Paulo native, Pereira claimed the fact he stuffed 11 takedowns and didn’t receive much damage, means the result should have landed in his favor instead.
But as far as Makhachkala native, Ankalaev is concerned, the former champion was simply “running” from him during their UFC 313 headliner.
“I thought (Alex) Pereira was going to be pushing, coming forward,” Magomed Ankalaev explained. “I thought he’d want to finish me. We prepared ourselves to dominate him. You could tell he was running away from me.”
Alex Pereira confident of securing rematch with Magomed Ankalaev after UFC 313
And revealing “negotiations” are already underway for him to rematch the Brazilian immediately, Pereira has now followed suit, claiming he is confident of scoring a re-run for the light heavyweight crown in his return to the Octagon.
“Guys, I’m back home,” Alex Pereira said on his YouTube channel. “I think we did a great job. Not only in this fight, but we have evolved a lot. I’m learning from each other. I’m very happy because it’s the result I expected. I was confident in this fight. I was good for the fight. I trained a lot. Of course, some things happen, but I don’t want to apologize.
“I know we’re going to have this rematch,” Alex Pereira continued. “I’m already talking about what I did. I already told you about the fight. A lot of people protested there. I haven’t watched the fight yet. I’m going to watch the fight and give my opinion.”
