The UFC has a new light heavyweight champion. Magomed Ankalaev had to wait a while for his chance, but he made the most of it with a unanimous decision victory over Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 313.
But his was one of those reversals of fortune that asks as many questions as it answers. Here are the biggest takeaways from Saturday night’s pay-per-view event in Las Vegas.
1. Pereira waited and watched — and what he saw was his title slipping away.
The urgency just wasn’t there for “Poatan.” Was it Ankalaev’s sneaky striking game? Was it an overabundance of concern about the threat of a takedown? Did he just simply not have it tonight, at least not the way he needed to?
Maybe it was some combination of all three. The end result was that he just couldn’t pull the trigger when he needed to. There was an uncharacteristic hesitation to Pereira’s game in this fight. And when he should have known that he needed to pour it on to give himself a chance in the final round, he fought like he thought he was ahead on the scorecards.
Pereira let this one slip away, and that’s got to sting. This was always going to be a tough test for him, but it also felt like a winnable fight if only he’d just done more. Ankalaev threw more strikes than Pereira did in every round except the first. That’s not an insurmountable skill gap if it comes to a rematch. But he’ll need to understand why it happened that way in order to address it.
2. If you’d told me Ankalaev would go 0-12 on takedown attempts and still win, I’d have said you should hand over your car keys because clearly you’re in no shape to drive.
Coming in, that’s where we assumed he had the greatest advantage. To get completely blanked by Pereira in that department and snatch the belt anyway? Unthinkable.
Ankalaev’s wrestling in this fight was more of a pause button than a weapon. It was a way for him to slow the fight down and halt any momentum Pereira was threatening to gain. It worked for that purpose, even if it also earned him a shower of boos. How he really won the fight, though, was by pressuring Pereira in the striking exchanges. He showed no fear of Pereira’s normally terrifying kickboxing game. And, except for a couple of scary moments late, he mostly neutralized Pereira’s best weapons.
This wasn’t the kind of win that adds a bunch of new fans to the bandwagon, even if it does bring yet another MMA title back to Dagestan. Ankalaev told us that “chama” time was over, and he was right about that (for now). But that doesn’t necessarily mean too many people are feeling pumped about Ankalaev time. At least not yet.
3. We keep waiting for Justin Gaethje to get old.
Or tired. Or to finally show up looking worn out and depleted. It keeps not happening. Even after that knockout loss to Max Holloway last year, he looked as sharp as ever in Saturday’s unanimous decision victory over Rafael Fiziev, who looked pretty good himself for a short-notice fill-in coming off knee surgery.
At 36, Gaethje should have already hit the point of diminishing returns for a lightweight. That’s only more true when you consider some of the battles he’s been in. Yet still he manages to be that rare fighter who always delivers the fan-friendly fun but without sacrificing strategy and good sense to do it. You can put that man in a fight with any 155-pounder in the world and get something out of it. The only question now is who it’s going to be with next.
4. The next generation of lightweights took a step forward on the undercard.
Mauricio Ruffy was handed a showcase fight against King Green and capitalized on it in a major way, scoring an early Knockout of the Year contender via spinning wheel kick. Then later Ignacio Bahamondes pulled off a slick triangle choke submission over Jalin Turner, adding his name to the list of serious up-and-comers.
Both guys are still in their twenties, with the full picture just starting to come into focus. They’re also in what is historically the most talent-rich division in the sport. The matchups will only get harder from here, but there’s reason to think they’re both going places — and might have to meet each other along the way.
5. One thing I didn’t expect to see at this event was Robbie Lawler shedding a tear.
But as they played his greatest hits while announcing his forthcoming induction into the UFC Hall of Fame, the legendary tough guy had to let it out.
Lawler’s place in any MMA hall of fame is beyond question. But one of the most remarkable things about his incredible career was its resiliency. There was a time when he seemed like he’d never be anything more than a one-dimensional slugger who was good for the occasional knockout but a long way from anything resembling greatness.
He molded himself into a complete fighter, and did it without losing any of the ferocity that made him so feared in the first place. He’s a good reminder that we shouldn’t assume we have the whole book on a guy just because we’ve seen him lose a few. The good fighters make the most of the skills they have. The great ones keep adding more while also getting smarter about how best to use it all.
Seeing Lawler finally get his flowers for all of that might’ve made me a little misty, too.
