If it were up to Magomed Ankalaev, with another win over Alex Pereira, his next opponent will be Carlos Ulberg – not Jiri Prochazka or Khalil Rountree.
The UFC light heavyweight champion faces Pereira for the second time this Saturday in the main event of UFC 320. Also competing on the same card is former champ Jiri Prochazka and recent title challenger Khalil Rountree in a high-stakes divisional matchup that could determine the next challenger.
However, Ulberg is coming off a spectacular first-round knockout win over Dominick Reyes in the main event of UFC Perth a week ago. Should Ankalaev retain, allowing a fresh challenger makes more sense to the division’s top fighter.
“You know, the guys that are fighting on the same card as I am, Rountree and Prochazka, I’m not really interested in them anymore,” Ankalaev told MMA Fighting through a translator. “They’re yesterday’s news. They’ve been punished already by the former champ, the guy that I’m fighting now, the guy that I beat.
“So I’m not specifically interested in, let’s say, the older guys, the older generation. But this new guy, the Ulberg guy you’re talking about, I mean, he’s interesting. He’s on an interesting streak. He’s been unbeaten for a little while, and I think if the UFC wants to stop him, what they’ll do is they’ll give him a fight against me so he will finally face defeat.”
Ankalaev is unbeaten in his past 13 fights and has taken shots on social media for both Prochazka and Rountree.
Following his win over Reyes, Ulberg said he hopes Ankalaev defeats Pereira for the second time so that he can take on the streaking titleholder. If that’s the case, that’s just fine by Ankalaev, but ultimately, he’s a company man and will do whatever the promotion prefers.
“If they want to make a star out of him, if they want to keep on pushing him forward, keep on making him a big deal in the UFC, they can,” Ankalaev said. “But eventually he’s going to have to face me, and that’s going to be, most likely, a stop to that big rise.”
“But I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I’m not picking my opponents. Whatever [the] UFC decides, that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll see what happens.”
