Ankalaev surprised a lot of people by winning a relatively clear decision over “Poatan” back at UFC 313 in March, where he did well to utilize feints, pressure, and a steady diet of effective strikes to keep the Brazilian knockout artist out of rhythm and unable to connect with anything of real significance. As much as many were taken aback by the outcome, they probably shouldn’t have been, as the 33-year-old Russian had always been on a championship trajectory and hadn’t lost a fight since his promotional debut, entering on a 13-fight unbeaten streak.
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For the first time since his divisional debut, Pereira enters Saturday’s contest off a loss, looking to get things moving in the right direction again and claim championship gold for the third time in his UFC career. There were positive moments for the imposing striker the first time around — he won the opening round on all three scorecards, for instance — but it will take a more sustained, more active effort in order to wrest the title away from Ankalaev this weekend.
There are clearly tensions between these two, and that only ramps up the anticipation for Saturday’s main event even more. Rematches often feel like truth serum, a means of finding out if the first encounter was a true representation of how things will routinely play out between the two parties or an anomalous result that will be rectified the second time around. But this is one of those cases where both things could be true: Ankalaev is elite and very much earned the victory the first time around, but a greater offensive output from Pereira and a different outcome this weekend wouldn’t surprise anyone either.
Sit back, buckle up, and enjoy.
