Daniel Cormier admitted that Magomed Ankalaev was injured heading into UFC 320, but it might not have mattered.
Last weekend, Ankalaev put his title on the line against Alex Pereira in a rematch at UFC 320. The fight went as badly as possible for Ankalaev, with ‘Poitan’ finishing him off within 90 seconds. In the aftermath, Ankalaev’s team revealed that the former champion entered the match with broken ribs that seriously affected his training. While Cormier acknowledged that’s true, he doesn’t think it made much of a difference in the outcome.
“First of all, Magomed Ankalaev injured his ribs,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “This is not a lie and this is not an excuse. I know this because before the game I saw a video of him getting an injection in his ribs so he could participate in the game. Basically, he was able to hit the pads and do cardio for a month and a half before the game.”
“Having said that, because of the way he fought Pereira, I don’t know if it would have changed the outcome if he were healthy. I know that some people very close to Magomed Ankalaev told him not to fight. He wanted to fight. He understood how important it was to win against Alex, and he wanted to beat Pereira again. Those two would have been even stronger words as to why he is the person he is.”
“I mean, he wasn’t 100 percent, but I don’t know if he would have been 120 percent if he had won against Pereira that night. The way Pereira attacked just showed that he was pissed and wanted a completely different fight than he started with. And he definitely did that.”
In their first encounter, Ankalaev made decisions, landed effective strikes and controlled Pereira along the fence for a long match. Pereira subsequently declared that he only did “40 percent” of himself in that fight and vowed to do things differently in the rematch. He certainly did, marching Ankalaev and dropping him almost immediately.
After regaining the title, Pereira plans to stay at 205 pounds and defend the belt if necessary, but has made it clear that the match he wants is a superfight with Jon Jones. It’s a fight that Jones himself had targeted before he retired, it’s a fight that Cormier is also in, and it gives Pereira a chance to establish himself as perhaps the greatest fighter of all time.
“Alex is 38 years old, so he’s probably thinking at this point, ‘How do I re-assert myself as a man?'” Cormier said. “If he beats Jon Jones, Alex Pereira, who is already considered one of the greatest fighters of all time in the earliest timeline I’ve ever seen, would literally solidify himself and stand above just about anyone, because he’s a former UFC light heavyweight champion, he’s a heavyweight champion, and he would have defeated a guy that many people consider to be the greatest fighter of all time.”
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Hmm…I mean, chamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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On the one hand, I’m partial to DC, but it probably won’t matter to Ankalaev against that version of Pereira. On the other hand, it’s quite difficult to win a match with broken ribs. Still, he accepted the fight in that state, so Big Ankh must accept that decision. — meshhu
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