Magomed Ankalaev grew to become the primary fighter to defeat Alex Pereira within the 205-pound division and is the brand new light-heavyweight champion after getting his hand raised within the UFC 313 major occasion.
Ankalaev received five-round a unanimous decision that was met with boos by the gang in attendance at T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas.
“I knew it could be a battle,” mentioned Pereira (12-3-0), who was placing his belt on the road for the fourth time. “Each battle of mine is a battle.”
Pereira began nicely and landed frequent low leg kicks on Ankalaev in Spherical 1. Ankalaev had extra success in Spherical 2 and rocked Pereira with a giant punch late. Spherical 3 was a aggressive, back-and-forth 5 minutes and Spherical 4 noticed Ankalaev accumulate some management time whereas clinching alongside the cage.
Ankalaev wasn’t in a position to get Pereira to the bottom however because the extra skilled MMA athlete he was in a position to gradual the battle down within the latter rounds.
A former middleweight champion who shared a longtime rivalry with Israel Adesanya earlier than transferring up in weight in 2023, Pereira grew to become champion at 205 kilos when he defeated Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295.
Pereira, who was additionally two-weight world kickboxing champion earlier than switching to MMA, earned consecutive title defences over Jamahal Hill at UFC 300, Prochazka a second time of their UFC 303 rematch and Khalil Rountree Jr., at UFC 307.
Ankalaev was driving a prolonged unbeaten streak that started after his unsuccessful UFC debut in 2018 that included wins over Aleksandar Rakic, Johnny Walker, Anthony Smith and Nikita Krylov.
The 32-year-old from Dagestan had been the division’s consensus No. 1 contender for fairly a while earlier than lastly incomes a shot at Pereira.
Ankalaev challenged for a vacant title in 2022 however he and Jan Blachowicz fought to a draw and Ankalaev needed to work his manner again to a title shot.
Justin Gaethje defeated Rafael Fiziev in a three-round unanimous decision within the evening’s co-main occasion.
It was a rematch of a majority decision Gaethje received two years in the past. Gaethje was initially scheduled to face Dan Hooker in a five-round bout however Hooker withdrew with a hand harm lower than two weeks in the past.
The light-weight division was closely featured at the occasion.
Mauricio Ruffy picked up a highlight-reel knockout of 51-fight veteran Bobby “King” Inexperienced within the opening bout of the pay-per-view card.
Ruffy put Inexperienced to sleep with a spinning wheel kick knockout to enhance to 3-0 within the UFC.
Ignacio Bahamondes submitted Jalin Turner in a battle of six-foot-three lightweights.
Turner was tapped with a triangle within the opening spherical and afterwards informed Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter that he plans on retiring after a 13-fight UFC profession.
Additionally on the principle card, Amanda Lemos received a unanimous decision over Iasmin Lucindo.
With recordsdata from The Related Press.
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