How excited are you for the Magomed Ankalaev vs. Poatan fight?

[richardjohnson]

2/10 or so. I'm stoked to see Alex fight, but Ank has a gift at making watching fights unbearable.

Genuinely curious, which of his fights were unbearable to watch?

 

[Skarsgard]

Genuinely curious, which of his fights were unbearable to watch?

Jan, Rakic, Volkan, Walker (both), and Santos off the top of my head. He's just awkward and blah until something finally happens. If you like his style, awesome. No doubt it's effective. Just not for me.

 

[Sycho Sid]

Probably an 8. Always fun to watch Alex fight, and this is is easily the best fight to make in the divison.

I expect it to be a pretty classic more rounded guy uses takedown threats to keep the better striker off balance to win the fight.

But also, Poatan has dynamite all over, and Ank could have a brain fart, so a lot could happen.

Rooting for Poatan to win, but think Ank will win, even if I am not super confident in the pick.

 

[richardjohnson]

Jan, Rakic, Volkan, Walker (both), and Santos off the top of my head. He's just awkward and blah until something finally happens. If you like his style, awesome. No doubt it's effective. Just not for me.

Hey to each their own, I certainly can’t pretend like he’s some all action fighter. I don’t think you can blame him for the Rakic fight though. Rakic seemed more interested in getting his steps in for the day than actually fighting.

 

[Skarsgard]

Hey to each their own, I certainly can’t pretend like he’s some all action fighter. I don’t think you can blame him for the Rakic fight though. Rakic seemed more interested in getting his steps in for the day than actually fighting.

Yeah. I'm not placing the fault entirely on Ank for that turd. Kinda wish it had been another draw.
I don't find Rakic must-see either. Unless you can reliably stay in his face like Jiri, he's gonna do his best to avoid damage and outpoint you.

 

[5crew]

Solid 8.
I was genuinely surprised when Pereira got passed Blachowicz since most people said his grappling is untested back then. Plus it was the first time Alex was fighting someone his size at that level.

I'm curious if Ankalaev can control Pereira in the early rounds. I don't think anyone can handle the power of Pereira hand which will likely land if the fight is kept standing.

 

[Russie]

8
Interested in seeing how Ankalaev does against Alex. My initial feeling is Alex dominates in the fight. Hope its a good competitive fight.

 

[markg171]

I'm excited for the barrage of tears on here when Ank tries to strike with Pereira like he does every fight and Sherdoggers are bewildered that he'd do something like that.

 

[Tweak896]

I'm excited to see what actually happens, but I have a feeling the fight is going be pretty terrible. Jan/Alex was pretty bad until Jan gassed. Really hope I'm wrong, but still am a 7/10 excitement for the fight. It's going to shape the LHW division. After Ankalaev, there is literally no one else that would be a good matchup for Alex.

We could see Alex at HW the fight after. Also think if he stops Ankalaev takedowns, those are probably as good as any HW right now besides Almeida. It's going to reveal if Alex was a product of the time of no grapplers or if he's just a mma god with no weakness.

 

[LeBron]

Anyone voting less than 8 is a lying sack of shit.

 

[CJrider]

Probably less than for most of his fights.

Ank doesn't do it for me, the dude has every tool in the books available at or near elite level and somehow manages to make it unenjoyable often or F up fights he should by all accounts easily win.

He can strike very well, has obvious KO power, good grappling, I'm not even sure what his weaknesses are other than his own brain doesn't seem to put all his skills together the way it should.

 

[Simple Southerner]

Needs to happen before ap moves up to hw

 

[bobafett]

Every Alex fight is a 10, guy is a gift to humanity from the jbg

 

[gentel]

8/10, where 10/10 is Tsarukyan-Islam, Islam-Oliveira, Umar-Merab, Izzy-Pereira, etc

 

[Ghostoftheville]

The threat of takedown is underrated alot of times. A striker wont strike the same way when he’s afraid of getting taken down. Ankalaev looked like absolute dogsh** in his fights, but Pereira was also off in his last fight and is really old with too much mileage, will be an interesting one for sure.

I'm starting to think people don't realize how old Pereira is with 50 plus fights.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Probably an 8. Always fun to watch Alex fight, and this is is easily the best fight to make in the divison.

I expect it to be a pretty classic more rounded guy uses takedown threats to keep the better striker off balance to win the fight.

But also, Poatan has dynamite all over, and Ank could have a brain fart, so a lot could happen.

Rooting for Poatan to win, but think Ank will win, even if I am not super confident in the pick.

I'm mostly with you, except perhaps a bit more confident that Ank will win. I'm curious to see how I feel when the fight starts because like you I'm definitely rooting for Pereira, but my ego will want to be right about what I think will happen, so we'll see what wins that battle.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Looking forward to the chance of changing my avatar to a KO'ed Uncle Aev and rubbing it in as many faces as I can.

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

Because Alex fans live in a fucking echo chamber they are gonna be like Chana Magaomed has nothing on Alex. Alex sucks at takedown defence and isn’t gonna solve it with two months of training, this dude is getting controlled on the ground for an entire round by strikers, I think Magaomed lays and prays on Alex for 5 rounds straight, hope I’m wrong though

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

No way Ankalaev can stand with Pereira on the feet, and I don't see him wrestling him down for 5 rounds.
Pereira by KO.

When are we gonna stop saying this, we said this about Merab and O’Malley

 

[Ladder Master]

Alex fighting is must see TV, but I can't get excited about Ankalaev as his opponent.
To me it's like the Jones vs Stipe situation in the sense that it is 'hurry up and get this
shit over with so we can move on'

8/10