Pereira will knock out Ankalaev easily

[HHJ]

Ankalaev needs the takedown. Dude can't defend a legkick to save his life and he is up against Alex.

Dont know if he will or no.


What we do know is he got hurt in the Jan fight and was able to consistently take and keep Jan down for half the fight. All that on an injured leg.

If he can do that to Jan he might have a chance to beat Poatan. He also does have good GNP.

So the skillset is there to matter if he can make things happen, even though he is primarily a standup fighter.

it all dont mean nothin if he gets starched in the first though, which could also easily happen. Ank is a careful fighter though so we will see.

 

[HHJ]

Dude can't defend a legkick to save his life and he is up against Alex.

If you watch all his fights he is quite good at defending leg kicks in general. Very fast reflexes. Sees everything coming.

 

[svmr_db]

Lol. He did just fine defending leg kicks against rakic, who has nasty leg kicks, just ask jiri. These newb level narratives get out of hand.

Ank has very good striking, majority think he cant beat alex standing up, but i beg to differ

Wait, you mean Ankalaev isn't sentenced to a lifetime of struggling to adjust to leg kicks until the end of time like half of Sherdog says he is?

 

[legedema]

lets also not forget that Ankalaev is very hard to hit.
maybe I am wrong but I don't remember him ever hit clean or even he had any cut or swelling in all those fights.

anyway, I am with Ankalaev here.
on the ground Alex looked like a fish out of water against Izzy, I just can't imagine what Ank. would do to Alex on the ground but I think now, ı give Ank. also chance standing because he never gets hit

 

[chwmupnsptmout]

I hope Poaitan starches this dude. Time to shut him up, and send him to the back of the line .....

 

[TheWizard]

lets also not forget that Ankalaev is very hard to hit.
maybe I am wrong but I don't remember him ever hit clean or even he had any cut or swelling in all those fights.

Santos dropped Ankalaev.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Alex in under 3 rounds. Ank too slow and plodding, will get chin checked after looking good for a round or two. Will be great to see the narrative shifts through the build up, fight, and aftermath.

 

[World eater]

Didn't Walker & Rakic attempt some kicks on him since then? I wouldn't count on him not being able to learn some lessons & make some adjustments after a fight 2+ years ago.

You usually have good takes, but as you said, try to approach this not as fan of either, but objectivelly. Walker and Rakić kick nowhere near the level of Jan, let alone Alex. Ank is not great at taking the fight to the ground. The way I see it, Ank needs to get him to the fence and trap him there, without allowing him to move around (like Rakić did). Ank is a big guy and may tire him enough to bring him down. His sub game is not there, bit if he gets his gnp going, he can be brutal. If he tries to exchange at range, his boxing notwithstanding, he will get wrecked.

 

[Lee Danger]

There's literally no evidence that he's way better at MMA now. His fights have consistently been striking battles, where has always shined. The last time this wasn't the case was vs Jan, and Jan was easily outgrappling him until both guys gassed badly due to the altitude they were fighting at. I'd expect Alex has improved, but we have no evidence to confidently say that he has. No reason to think a guy like Ankalaev can't do exactly what Jan was doing.

common sense, which i know is rare, tells that he has started training grappling when he switched to mma and also common sense tells that you tend to be better with time: i dare to say that it's unlikely that Alex is at the same level or has gotten worse.
evidence shows that Ank striking didn't improve that much...

 

[orca]

Older fights Pereira's way better at MMA at this point. He's improved rapidly. Ankalaev has weak top control, subs and takedowns. He's just going to eventually get knocked out.

how can you say a 37 year old fighter is getting better especialy in wrestling with a limited amount of time
sounds like bs to me

 

[drphil]

Through the process of mma math, the fight will most likely end in a draw

Well it's decided then, no need to have the fight then.
Out of curiosity I'd like to see how you came to this conclusion and more importantly how does the rematch go?

 

[RichardHarrow]

Through the process of mma math, the fight will most likely end in a draw

This is a likelihood.

 

[Kevster]

Don’t know about easily but it’s definitely possible, look forward to what will be hilarious levels of goal post moving if it happens though.

 

[markantony20]

Historically the Russian vs Brazilian fight matchup has gone the Russians way so I’ll bet on Ank

 

[Doctor Grudge]

how can you say a 37 year old fighter is getting better especialy in wrestling with a limited amount of time
sounds like bs to me

It's much easier/faster to improve from beginner to intermediate.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Lol. He did just fine defending leg kicks against rakic, who has nasty leg kicks, just ask jiri. These newb level narratives get out of hand.

rakic landed 34 legkicks in 3 rounds

 

[A Very Serious Cat]

If Ank can't get some wrestling going then I expect poatan to chew him up with leg kicks and finish him. Avoiding the wrestling should be easier said than done though

 

[kingmob6]

rakic landed 34 legkicks in 3 rounds

that is exactly my point. empty statistic doesn't account for how he parries, adjusts and blocks leg kicks.

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

Ankalaev is so overrated. He barely won his last fight.

Alex mauls him.

And? This just makes you look as stupid as an inbred Dagestani. The rounds he won he barely won. Most of the people here have him only winning by one round. That's barely winning.

he didn't barely win them though, rakic did nothing in that fight and just ran the whole time, round 2 and 3 weren't close, it was a boring fight but ankalaev won round 2/3 without a doubt. Round 1 was close that's it

 

[Fedorgasm]

Ank doesn't need to be a great grappler. He's still the best grappler than Alex has faced.

And what do you consider great? Not every Dagestani is khabib, but Ank is good.