Magomed Ankalaev explains UFC PI altercation with Alex Pereira
UFC light heavyweight champ Magomed Ankalaev explains UFC PI altercation with Alex Pereira.
LAS VEGAS – Magomed Ankalaev’s perception of Alex Pereira has taken a dip.
The UFC light heavyweight champion has lost respect for Pereira following Pereira’s recent allegations, claiming that Ankalaev hid from him to avoid crossing paths at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. Ankalaev says there’s no truth to Pereira’s claims and confronted him about it. The whole ordeal left Ankalaev with a bad taste in his mouth.
“Honestly, up until recently, I had respect for him as a fighter and as a person,” Ankalaev told MMA Junkie and other media through an interpreter Thursday. “I no longer respect him because, OK, trash talk is something to hype up the fight, maybe you say something funny, or to be salty, but when you lie to people and say, ‘I saw him, and he hid,’ and stuff like that he recently said, I don’t respect people like that. Why would you lie about something that never happened?”
Ankalaev made it clear that he intends to play no games ahead of their UFC light heavyweight championship rematch on Oct. 4 in the main event of UFC 320. After a tense encounter on Thursday, should Pereira take things further next week, Ankalaev will be ready to stand his ground.
“The problem here is that he was talking all this crap just a few fays ago, and then today I saw him – it was just me and my coach and him and his whole team – I approached him and I said, ‘Hey, guys. You were lying that I was hiding and stuff. I’m right here right now. What are you going to do?,” Ankalaev said. “He responded by saying, ‘Oh this girl said that, this guy that said that,’ and he starting making stuff up on the spot.
“I have no problem, but say he gets close to me next week and decides to get too close to me, of course, I’m going to defend myself. Other than that, we’ll see everything in the cage.”
