People underrate how good Big Ank is

[Luffy]

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.

Lol salty AF over a guy who stepped on short notice twice to save the UFC in 2024. He got 3-0, beat Adesanya who had never been beaten on MW. Won fair and square vs Jan, though it was close. Fought Jiri who had never lost in the UFC and was 34-2 overall. Fought Jiri again on short notice. Fought Khalil with one month shirt notice and a fractured rib, so much so he almost cancelled the fight but decided to give a night sleep. Khalil is now a #3 ranked contender. Fought Ankalaev and made it razor thin despite being with norovirus.

Ankalaev called Alex "you are a great champion, you deserve the TS more than anyone. It was an honor sharing the cage with you". Heck he said Alex is on another level compared to Tom and the HWs in his X account and then said the same on an interview, that "Alex is the best fighter he can fight."

You know nothing about MMA. All fighters praise Alex Pereira for his skills and heavy sacrifice for the industry and the fans overall. You're salty for nothing.

 

[Luffy]

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.

Nonsense. Lol. Ppl mad at Pereira here are.... They hate anyone I think. Any fighter who's successful ppl hate because they hate seeing them succeed. That's a loser's mentality sorry.

 

[marvinparsons]

I think most people do not see him losing any time soon.

He isn't compared to Islam/Touria yet as he has zero title defenses.

 

[Tweak896]

I mean, it was a razor thin close fight. Wait the rematch. Handled him is a huge exaggeration

I guess I mean skill for skill. Ank proved he could control him, proved he could out box him, and proved he could take the leg kicks without shutting down like everyone else.

Alex proved he can avoid getting taken down but it shuts down his own offense and he could take Ank's biggest shots. Leg kicks were all Alex did, but he really never could consistently land like he did in other fights and it was much more grazing than usual.

I'm hoping I'm wrong about the rematch, but most of the time when the champs that lose their belts get an immediate rematch lose most the time.

 

[Meathead Jock]

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.

Agree to disagree.

If a 37 year old can't beat a 32 year old. They won't beat a 33 year old at 38.

Especially with Alex seemingly allowing himself to get so heavy at 38 years old perhaps in hopes of chasing a Jones fight.

He always has that knockout power but I feel most likely the result is an easier victory for Big Ank this time around assuming it goes to the scorecards.

 

[NicholasJBasile]

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.

I cosign with a lot of what you have to say. I'd also add that for someone that is generally action-packed with offense, he gets a lot of criticism for being "boring". I wouldn't quite put him up there with Khabib or Islam honestly as I feel he's not quite as dominant, but I still consider him among the elite and probably a futurre UFC HOF'er.

 

[sandokan83]

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.

Dude, you are just a poatan cheerleader. Don´t try to hide that.

 

[Luffy]

Dude, you are just a poatan cheerleader. Don´t try to hide that.

Not really. I'm a JJ more of a fan in the sense I wish he turns out to have the last win. I'm just analysing it objectively.

 

[sandokan83]

Not really. I'm a JJ more of a fan in the sense I wish he turns out to have the last win. I'm just analysing it objectively.

Ok. Now translate to english.

 

[Limeade]

He goes to decision in all his fights. Young jon would mop the floor with ank. He is very good but jones and him are not even on the same level.

Not all his fights. He finished Ion twice, Johnny walker twice, and used reflect to TKO anthony smith.

That's pretty good.

 

[Hymen Crusher]

Not all his fights. He finished Ion twice, Johnny walker twice, and used reflect to TKO anthony smith.

That's pretty good.

Yes that's fine but those are not even top 15 guys. Im not saying he cant ko people he just doesnt. His two biggest fights were 1 close dec and 1 draw. He is obviously very good. Im not going to look right now but does he have more then 2 top 10 wins in his career. I feel like these Russian dudes get titles off very few quality wins

 

[p4pfighters]

You’re fucking delusional. He’s not as good as Jon Jones in his prime. Frankly, Jon could probably beat him right now.

Prime Jon Jones went life and death with a MW amputee with one leg.

 

[shunyata]

People wanna pretend like Poatan just fought that way just because he wanted to relax or something.

Technically Ank did do a great job of shutting down the lead hand, and that is a sensible strategy against a guy who's danger is in his lead left hook and his jab.

It remains to be seen whether that was effective because Poatan was injured, or if it was just effective.

That being said, Ank is still the guy that could only draw vs Jan not that long ago.

 

[WildShrimper]

Technically Ank did do a great job of shutting down the lead hand, and that is a sensible strategy against a guy who's danger is in his lead left hook and his jab.

It remains to be seen whether that was effective because Poatan was injured, or if it was just effective.

That being said, Ank is still the guy that could only draw vs Jan not that long ago.

When Jan shows up in top form he is very tough to beat, even Poatan barely scraped by him

 

[Dorkman]

He indeed has great hands/footwork, and a extremely well rounded skill set overall.

 

[Dorkman]

When Jan shows up in top form he is very tough to beat, even Poatan barely scraped by him

At his LHW peak he had one of the most underrated weapons in all of MMA. The guys willingness to go shin on shin kicks and just always come out better than his opponents on them. They're so foolishly damaging if he gets set up and start landing them he just cripples you. Ank being straight up unable to stand in their fight by the end really shows how devastating they are.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Prime Jon Jones went life and death with a MW amputee with one leg.

 

[Luffy]

Prime Jon Jones went life and death with a MW amputee with one leg.

That "MW" had just beaten Jan Blackowski by a 3rd round TKO before facing Jones. Do your research before lol Santos said here more than once that the best performance he had was vs JJ due to the nature of the fight, even. So JJ fought and defeated someone > Jan Blackowski there

 

[Luffy]

Prime Jon Jones I think is still > Ankalaev. Slightly though. But he is. I'd get Jon Jones winning a 48-47 vs Ankalaev. The fact he defeated Gus (had beaten Jan by UD), Santos (> Jan by then) and Glover, who also beat the shit out of Jan Blackowski shows he was indeed a step ahead Ankalaev.

Ankalaev was > Jan too, that fight being a draw was nonsense... I'd have that a 48-46 for Ankalaev easily, considering the last round was clearly a 10-8 and that Ankalaev won the first round by every metric. That fight was considerably more one sided to Ankalaev than vs Alex Pereira, who was legit a close fight... and the rematch, I think, Alex has it back. Ankalaev is still, considering this objectively, a step or two below prime JJ.

JJ would have likely defeated Big Ank by a 48-47 or 49-46 when they were there the same age, at LHW.

I believe prime Jon Jones is ~ Pereira currently when Pereira is healthy. Likely a step above still. But Pereira is the closest one to prime JJ I'd say, it'd be his toughest fight.

 

[Thy]

I don't believe you.