Ali Abdelaziz would have rather Magomed Ankalaev didn’t make the walk at UFC 320.
Ankalaev (21-2-1 MMA, 12-2-1 UFC) was quickly knocked out in his title-fight rematch against Alex Pereira (13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in Saturday’s main event at T-Mobile Arena. Pereira appeared to call out Abdelaziz in his Instagram story, prompting the renowned manager to respond.
Abdelaziz released a statement addressing the loss, the trash talk leading up, and revealed that Ankalaev entered the fight compromised.
“Saturday night, Magomed Ankalaev fought Alex Pereira. In the rematch, and Alex Pereira won. Congratulations to him and his team. I know his coaches, managers, and always show them respect. I don’t know Alex personally. But, I am Team Magomed Ankalaev. Whatever I can do to help him, I will do it. As long as I don’t insult someone’s family, religion, or his nation. Everything Ankalaev said on his social media, he approved it. And if I did help him, it was his knowledge. But, at the end of the day, we are in a fighting business. As long as no one speaks about you in a bad way, or your family, or your nation. About me doing sports or not doing sports, this is irrelevant. But, I have two black belts in Judo and Jiu-Jitsu under Master Renzo Gracie. And I also competed in Judo and MMA. But, in reality, this is not about me and Alex.
This is about Magomed Ankalaev and Alex. Alex was the best man on Saturday night. And we take our losses like men. We move on. I don’t have any problems with Alex. I respect everything he accomplished. There’s a lot of things happened with Ankalaev in his camp. But, it’s for him to talk about. Not me. And if I need to talk about it, I will talk about it. If it was up to me, he should never have fought due to some things. But he’s a grown man, he makes his own decisions, and he lives by his actions. Congratulations to Alex and his team. And for all the sorry-ass fan, every time somebody from the Caucasus region, or the Middle East, Dagestan, Chechnya, get a UFC title, they all freak out. You win some and you lose some. That’s part of this game. Alhumdullalah for everything.🙏”
In their first title fight at UFC 313 which Ankalaev won by unanimous decision, it was Pereira who claimed that he entered the fight at 40 percent.
