Magomed Ankalaev Lashes Out At Alex Pereira: “Why Would I Be Hiding From Him?”

Magomed Ankalaev called out Alex Pereira ahead of their title tilt at UFC 320.

In March, Ankalaev unseated ‘Poatan’ as the undisputed light heavyweight champion, scoring a unanimous decision victory over the Brazilian bruiser. Now, the Dagestani will look to prove that his win was no fluke when the two run it back this Saturday night in Las Vegas.

While things were mostly quiet in the months leading up to their sequel scrap, things have grown more intense following a run-in at the UFC Performance Institute, where Pereira says Ankalaev tried to “hide” from him.

“You know, when I heard that that’s what he said, I was perplexed,” Ankalaev told MMA Fighting when asked about Pereira’s claim. “I was confused. Why would he even say that? If you look at the last fight, I bullied him in the fight. I pressured him. He was running away from me the entire fight. I won the fight. I became the champion. So, why would I be hiding from him?

“So when I saw that when I saw the statement that that’s what he said that I hid from him, I just wanted to understand from his mouth what what is it? Why is it that he said that? So I found out what times he’s there like what time he usually comes to the PI. I went and I had a procedure done and then I walked out and there he was with his team and I asked him I said you were looking for me. You said I was hiding. Well here I am. You found me. So why why were you saying that? And then he couldn’t really explain himself.

“Then he started doing all sorts of like, ‘I don’t know, the lady said, the girl said, somebody said.’ I didn’t even care to listen to any of that explanation because there I was confronting him right in front of his face, and he had no answer for why he told everybody that I was hiding from him.”

Whether or not Ankalaev was hiding, he’ll have nowhere to run to when they headline the first of two loaded pay-per-view events this month.