Next for Poatan will be Rakic

[Trabaho]

I hope he beat Ank. This fight depends on Aleksanders grappling provees (is this a word). In the Stand up Raka smokes him. Those kicks and skill. Go

 

[ElLunico]

Lol Ank is going to make easy work of him

 

[Motivated BJ Penn]

Rakic is like Jan, a safety first fighter, if he thinks he can win by lnp easily then he will do just that.

Expect him to shoot immedeately vs Alex

 

[PrideNverDies]

I am a Rakic hater, even though I should support the Serbians.

I do however think he beats Ankalaev, if he fights aggressive. We've seen Ank suffer from the leg kicks before, and that's kinda Rakic's whole thing

Ya Ank fans (Alex haters) like to forget his leg kick defense is trash. I hope Alex still fights him and KOs him so crotch sniffer haters can cry more

 

[Blastbeat]

Have to agree.

That said, I still think he gets flatlined by Pereira. Especially if he stupid enough to stand and strike, which it appears he will be.

Of importance, though, is the fact Ankalaev only has one submission. This means he is not a submission threat, if he happens to take Pereira down.

Meanwhile, Pereira will be the biggest threat in Ankalaev's career while on the feet, which I believe the majority of this fight will take place — until Magomed gets KO'd.

We also have to remember when Ankalaev and Jan fought, the most significant damage was done by Jan with leg kicks. Jan is a pretty damn good leg kicker and Poatan is even better. If Ank hasn't shored up his defense down there, he's in for a painful night and week of recovery for those calfs.

Of course, Ank could also just be saying that he wants to strike with Poatan. When the fight happens, then we will know what his gameplan is.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Have to agree.

That said, I still think he gets flatlined by Pereira. Especially if he stupid enough to stand and strike, which it appears he will be.

Of importance, though, is the fact Ankalaev only has one submission. This means he is not a submission threat, if he happens to take Pereira down.

Meanwhile, Pereira will be the biggest threat in Ankalaev's career while on the feet, which I believe the majority of this fight will take place — until Magomed gets KO'd.

Completely reasonable take - I could definitely see Ank making the critical fight IQ errors of not taking the initiative and trying to fight off the back foot and getting his leg immediately chewed up so he can't wrestle well once he decides he needs to.

Ank is not a submission fighter and at LHW it's not really a good path to victory, you are better off getting a good top position and just beating the piss out of your opponent with GnP - that is something that And has been consistently good at over his career. So if Ank somehow uses an intelligent game-plan (who knows, he might by accident lol, or perhaps rise to the occasion) he could easily get Poatan pushed back/clinched up and look to trip/level-change and then beat him up from top position.

Izzy was literally mauling Pereira on the ground and controlling him at length - IZZY, a tall/lanky middleweight kickboxer that never wants to grapple that has never controlled and GnP'd anyone in his entire career, and he was able to do this for the majority of an entire round. I know Poatan was still green but that's probably a fatal-flaw baked into his game at this point (he also immediately gave up his back to Jan, so if there is a transition there Ank might just hit it).

It's just one of those fights we as fight fans really should want to see, it's a true test for Pereira to fight a well-rounded guy that is dangerous where he is weakest. I know we all love seeing brawls/striking battles, but feeding guys like Khalil to him (#8 with no top 10 wins) doesn't really do a lot to build his legacy as a potential all-time great.

 

[Petarito]

rather see ankalaev

rakic just got smoked by Jiri

He did not get smoked
He won the first round and dominated the 2nd until he got caught

 

[Hdfi]

Rakic broke my heart when he lost to Jiri

He is also not getting a TS coming off to TKO loses and only 1 win.

If he wins in impressive fashion he might get the next title shot.