Ali Abdelaziz thinks the UFC intentionally tried to keep Magomed Ankalaev away from Alex Pereira.
Pereira (12-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) defended his light heavyweight title three times until he ran into Ankalaev (21-1-1 MMA, 12-1-1 UFC), who dethroned him at UFC 313 in March. Abdelaziz thinks opponents Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka, and Khalil Rountree were tailor-made for Pereira.
“Alex Pereira was engineered,” Abdelaziz said on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with ex-UFC champs Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo. “UFC has some of the best matchmakers in the world. They have the best minds. Like you, (Usman): You should have been a champion three fights before you fought for the title. It was engineered not to get you there because of your style of fighting. … But when I got (Usman) and Dana (White) to sit in one room, everything changed. I think Alex is a good fighter. I think he’s a real fighter. He’s a lion. But in a way, Ankalaev should have been champion two, three years ago.
“Alex would have never been a champion, and I’ll tell you something again: If they fight again – and they will fight again probably in October – it’s going to be worse for Alex. Now Ankalaev has the confidence. He understands. (Pereira) was a scary guy touching people and knocking them out, but he fought a whole bunch of mediocre strikers. None of these guys was a high-level striker. Ankalaev, he can wrestle, he can grapple, and he can strike. Ankalaev is more of a striker than a grappler, and we’ve seen, he hurt him in the fight. Alex didn’t hurt him.”
Abdelaziz used another client of his as an example, undefeated Movsar Evloev, to point out Ankalaev’s prolonged route to the title. Ankalaev is expected to have an immediate rematch against Pereira for his first title defense.
“It’s Ankalaev’s time,” Abdelaziz said. “It should have been Ankalaev’s time. Hunter Campbell, Mick Maynard, all of the UFC, they was all sandbagging him. They knew he was coming, and they was praying he’d lose.”
