He said that Pereira would go to events to get drunk, all while knowing that was a deep personal thing since Pereira started martial arts to try stop drinking. Pereira had said in interviews from many months ago, that in the place he lived, he'd feel sorry for whoever couldn't stop drinking, and that he knew those people would like to stop but it was something beyond their control... And he lost friends from alcoholism. So Ankalaev saying he would go there to get drunk, and doubling down on that in the press conference (but in a more disguised way, trying to make it more acceptable by saying "I was just worried with him, I was worried that he could be drinking, that was me being worried for his own health"... Lmao yeah right...), that shows a malicious intent from Ankalaev when the fight had already been booked.
He also posted on Twitter that he would make Pereira look like the tire worker that he was rather than a martial artist... Pereira worked in the tire while battling extreme poverty. He had a son and he could barely buy his son diapers, all while working a lot and still battling alcoholism.
He didn't stoop as low as Connor against Khabib, sure... But he got into deep personal matters that, as a Muslim, if he says "Allah will protect me, it's Allah's will", then he is going to get defeated, since he didn't act like a secure person would do, he acted like someone desperate to get more PPVs for the fight to the point of stooping to this level. So if he believes in a superior force, Alex is going to destroy Ankalaev. And that's the same feeling I had when Connor vs Khabib were about to fight. I could sense, like, who was confident and who needed to touch on personal matters to build something. And in close odds, in this case slightly towards Pereira, it almost always ends up with the one stooping to this level like Ankalalev did, getting defeated.
To me, Pereira has the same vibe Khabib had, in the sense of being a tough MF but showing that on the cage. And I dunno, generally whenever I have a feeling like this, it almost 100% ends up being the case... And in this case, I see an overwhelming win by Alex, like, he'll make it look easier than many think IMO.