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People underrate how good Big Ank is

You’re fucking delusional. He’s not as good as Jon Jones in his prime. Frankly, Jon could probably beat him right now.
I'm a fan of JJ. I'm just saying that because I'm unbiased... I legit think Ankalaev right now is the toughest opponent for Alex Pereira and vice versa. He's underrated but to me he's better than Tom, like ppl would think otherwise but to me, defeating Ankalaev is definitely more impressive and tougher for Alex than going up and beating Tom... Ankalaev is hugely underrated. He's a killer.
 
He’s won a ton of fights by knockout so idk where this is coming from
Not to say these two are on the same level but people do the same thing with Grant Dawson when he has more finishes than decisions. Big Ank is 6-6 for KO's and Decisions in the UFC but "he's boring and always goes to decision" lmao
 
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Compare a 15-2 record from Tom while fighting way less often. Now compare that with Ankalaev who's 22-1 while fighting way more often than Tom and in a tougher division which is LHW... Ppl will select highlights but in quality, Ankalaev is the toughest puzzle for Alex. The fact he went to decision means nothing, it means he is proven well enough to win decisions by being a very calculated guy. Boring is actually misunderstood by someone who is good at winning. Exciting fighters like Tom has this aura for 3 quick KOs while never fighting someone who was even a champion or even the best fighter of a worse, decayed HW division, than current LHW which is an evolved era whether ppl like it or not... Ankalaev's decision wins are generally domination with no question marks, except for Alex, which was his toughest decision win by far. Otherwise, he either dominates the fighters winning all rounds or winning 4 clearly by beating the fighters in all aspects... Or he KOs them in 2 or 3 rounds. His straight left packs a huge power punch. He's a very , very heavy striker. He is a very good grappler as well. When he sees his striking isn't enough, he gets all fighters he needs to the ground, with the exception being Alex Pereira.

He has a granite chin, and he's very good defensively. It's hard to hit him clean because his chin is very well positioned — generally next to his shoulder; he rolls with the punches extremely well to lessen the head impact... And his octagon positioning is excellent — he will frame his position slightly off reach so he minimizes strikes to his face. He's a very good and technical striker, heavy puncher, has amazing kicking skills, he's a sambo specialist who has competed in many world sambo tournaments... He's above Tom in difficulty scale in almost every metric, as he's also as young as Tom, as quick as Tom, but has an array of techniques, reading of the fights, positioning and striking awareness (both offensively and defensively) + better wrestling, which Tom does not.
 
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Idk why... But Big Ank isn't recognized as maybe the first or second strongest fighter currently. That's one nasty competitor. He's a top 3 worst draw ever. Your can't beat him down, you can't scare him down, he is so tough, so game... It's one of those things.

The only fight he lost was one he won but tapped for some weird reason in less than 5 seconds. Someone said his tongue was caught between his teeth unfortunately. But he has the skills of a 22-0 u defeated fighter. Talk about a prime LHW JJ ? That's exactly who Ankalaev is... A prime Jon Jones in LHW when he fought Gus 2, Gus 1, DC. That's how good Big Ank is, except Big Ank is also big. Right now (consider JJ retired) the only fighter who can beat Ankalaev is Poatan and the only fighter who can beat Poatan is Ankalaev. Period. They won't lose against anyone else. They are top 2 baddest dudes for sure. Ankalaev is a fighter who will get an uppercut from Ngannou and keep fighting as if he had beem hit by a strong punch but not enough to wobble him badly. He is the toughest fighter maybe + huge cardio like Pereira.

There's a reason team Khabib , team Islam mention him and all but they aren't that much friends. Because Khabib and Makhachev are still human beings, they do other things like media, funny things. Ankalaev won't make funny videos with DC, media stuff. The only things he will be doing is training, eating and sleeping. He's the best Dagestani to ever fight in MMA. And he's not from team Khabib, he's from some place in Dagestan that people don't bother him because he trains harder than anyone but he can train as much as he can and have no bad consequences, because he's genetically favoured in a way you can say he's the Merab of UFC while Poatan is the Topuria of UFC. That's like a fight between Merab vs Topuria if Merab were actually in the same weight class as Topuria.

That's a fighter who can only be beaten by Pereira and vice versa. He can never be KO'd, he can only lose by close decisions. Chimaev, DDP, Tom Aspinall? Ok, big hype... But Ank is the fighter who lacks this hype but can easily beat any of them. He can go to HW and easily beat Tom Aspinall. Again, he's the pinnacle of Dagestan fighters, a fighter who no other Dagestan fighter would even mess up with. Imagine an Islam Makhachev naturally at 230 lbs with the skills of Islam but as if this Islam were on turinabol? Yes that's how good Ankalaev is, a top 2 fighter currently.
Poaton beat him 1-3-5. He’s not taking an uppercut from big Frank. He’s not as good as jones.
 
I appreciate your support of your son, Mrs. Ankalev, but if you can’t knock Jiri out, Jiri is going to eventually get you, and your boy can’t knock him out.
The fact Ank has fans is baffling or maybe TS just likes making 18 threads a day?

<goldie>
I don’t even think TS likes Ankalaev, I’ve seen him post many times about how Pereira will beat him in the rematch. I think he just hypes Ank up so a potential Poatan win looks that much better.
 
Hes obviously a great fighter, probably the only current LHW who would A) be top 5 at HW and B) still be top 5 at LHW a decade ago when the division was actually good.

But top 3 worst draw ever? first or second strongest fighter currently? no.
 
Hes obviously a great fighter, probably the only current LHW who would A) be top 5 at HW and B) still be top 5 at LHW a decade ago when the division was actually good.

But top 3 worst draw ever? first or second strongest fighter currently? no.
JJ has retired so let's leave him out. Like Khabib said, JJ has done enough and is the greatest in ufc history.

That being said, Ankalaev would be #1 in HW easily. Tom is an easier fight for him than Poatan, as is Poatan an easier fight for him than Tom. Just seeing their level of activity and conditioning is telling. They're better athletes, are more proven vs top tiers, and HW is < LHW in skillset. Ankalaev is 240 lbs naturally so he can fight at 240 at his best. Let's say fights got to decision always for a parameter... He'd get a 49-46 over Tom. 3x 49-46 I bet. Pereira would also imo get a UD 49-46 over Tom. Maybe I'm somewhat off, and they'd get a 48-47 over Tom.

I think Pereira when fresh vs Ankalaev is a 48-47 for The Pereira. Idk tho

To me Alex Pereira vs Ankalaev rematch is like Illia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev would go
 
JJ has retired so let's leave him out. Like Khabib said, JJ has done enough and is the greatest in ufc history.

That being said, Ankalaev would be #1 in HW easily. Tom is an easier fight for him than Poatan, as is Poatan an easier fight for him than Tom. Just seeing their level of activity and conditioning is telling. They're better athletes, are more proven vs top tiers, and HW is < LHW in skillset. Ankalaev is 240 lbs naturally so he can fight at 240 at his best. Let's say fights got to decision always for a parameter... He'd get a 49-46 over Tom. 3x 49-46 I bet. Pereira would also imo get a UD 49-46 over Tom. Maybe I'm somewhat off, and they'd get a 48-47 over Tom.

I think Pereira when fresh vs Ankalaev is a 48-47 for The Pereira. Idk tho

To me Alex Pereira vs Ankalaev rematch is like Illia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev would go


Poatan would likely get wrestlefucked by dudes like Blaydes, Pav and Jailton and probably even straight up outstruck by Gane and Volkov, I wouldnt even count out someone like Spivac against him. He has a punchers chance against the somewhat reckless Tom but thats about it, even then I wouldnt be surprised at all if Tom slept him standing.

Tom/Ank could be interesting and one of the better fights out there for Tom but I sure as fuck wouldnt have Ank as the favourite.
 
He is very good but he has a lot of work to do.

IDK why the fuck he is not booked... but he should fight Poatan again so fanboys can STFU, then Jiri and Rountree.
 
In his fight with Alex, he looked like he had some dangerous striking.
 
I thought Alex was going to chew through Ank with leg kicks after what Jan did, but Ank probably didn't prepare that time for them. Hindsight is 20/20, but Alex came in with the gameplan everyone who is logical would've came up still. Still Ank clearly handled Alex. It was almost night and day difference between how Ank handled striking defensively vs Jiri 2x, Hill, or Rountree.

I expect most people to be sad about the rematch and Ank wins even more dominantly, but there's always hope with Alex's power. I'm a fan of his technical skill, but entertainment wise he's content to put on a snoozer to secure the decision win. We'll see where he goes from here.
 
I thought Alex was going to chew through Ank with leg kicks after what Jan did, but Ank probably didn't prepare that time for them. Hindsight is 20/20, but Alex came in with the gameplan everyone who is logical would've came up still. Still Ank clearly handled Alex. It was almost night and day difference between how Ank handled striking defensively vs Jiri 2x, Hill, or Rountree.

I expect most people to be sad about the rematch and Ank wins even more dominantly, but there's always hope with Alex's power. I'm a fan of his technical skill, but entertainment wise he's content to put on a snoozer to secure the decision win. We'll see where he goes from here.
I mean, it was a razor thin close fight. Wait the rematch. Handled him is a huge exaggeration
 
Agree with the thought on him being like a Prime Belal in a weaker weight class.

He is very good, but I'd take both Jones and DC in their primes over him.

I do think he would beat a present day Jon Jones though who cuts back down, so that's pretty high compliment.
 
Poatan would likely get wrestlefucked by dudes like Blaydes, Pav and Jailton and probably even straight up outstruck by Gane and Volkov, I wouldnt even count out someone like Spivac against him. He has a punchers chance against the somewhat reckless Tom but thats about it, even then I wouldnt be surprised at all if Tom slept him standing.

Tom/Ank could be interesting and one of the better fights out there for Tom but I sure as fuck wouldnt have Ank as the favourite.
Dude, who's Tom next to Poatan? Tom has done nothing compared to what Pereira has been doing. Pereira finishes him in 2 rounds. All this hype for nothing.
 
I mean, it was a razor thin close fight. Wait the rematch. Handled him is a huge exaggeration
Agree, very close fight. But their ages suggest Poaton won't have anything for him in the rematch aside from a potential KO that he will bring with him to every fight until he loses it all.
 
We will see what his legacy looks like. In my book, Ank vs Pereira should have happened at least 1 fight sooner. So Ank should be on 1 title defense already. And realistically, you could argue it should have been Ank vs Pereira instead of the Jiri rematch.

That means if Ank beats Pereira in the rematch, he should be on 3x title defenses at that point, defending against Pereira/Jiri/Rakic.

If Ank can defend the belt 6 times from now until he retires, without failing PED tests, in my books he surpasses Jon Jones. All he needs to do is clean out LHW without failing a drug test, and it will become a question whether Jon Jones would have beaten him or not. At that point, the failed steroid tests for Jon become too much to overlook.
 
Dude, who's Tom next to Poatan? Tom has done nothing compared to what Pereira has been doing. Pereira finishes him in 2 rounds. All this hype for nothing.

The irony in this is Poatans has been heavily manufactured. Signed to the UFC at 3-1, given a title shot after 3 fights (one against a top 10 opponent), given a contentious decision over Jan, gifted basically a free title defence vs Khalil. If he had been treated like any other fighter he probably never wins a title.
 
Agree, very close fight. But their ages suggest Poaton won't have anything for him in the rematch aside from a potential KO that he will bring with him to every fight until he loses it all.
No, since Poatan fought with norovirus, it actually means their second fight will be closer if anything. Ank wants even a third fight guarantee it seems. It won't be easy but fighting with Norovirus sucks, fighting when not ill is better. Plus, Alex isn't slowing down, much like he got better post first Jiri fight by making the rematch dominant. He got into MMA late. Glover managed to be LHW champion at 42 yo. If anything, Ankalaev is calling the riskier fight as it'll be a tougher fight and this time I'm confident the script turns and Poatan gets a 48-47. He's aiming for HW as well. But yeah, if you think the rematch is going to be easier, nah, Ankalaev will go through a 5 round tough fight again and this time Pereira gets it back.
 
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