by Let’s say it right away: nobody wants to see Magomed Ankalaev win this fight.
Ok, very well, I guess I shouldn’t say person. There is his family to consider. There are his coaches and his teammates. If there is someone in Daghestan who has not yet tired of celebrating all his victories on the title of the UFC, they would probably also appreciate it if Ankalaev beats Alex Pereira to become light heavyweight champion at the UFC 313 this Saturday.
But as for the wider world of MMA? Fans who love the Knock-out, the media who love a click, the UFC who love money? Not a lot of Ankalaev loves to be found in one of these corners. There are two fundamental reasons for this: 1) Pereira is very fun, and 2) Ankalaev is not fun.
It looks like a more severe criticism of the man I mean. But come on, you know it’s true. Especially when you compare the two options for the main UFC 313 event.
In a corner, you have Pereira, a dazzling attacker who manages to overflow with personality even when he does not speak the tongue and never cracks. He has his own slogan (the appropriate laconic “chama”) and his own emoji (who knew that the head of Easter island would be so useful). He has a style in and out of the cage. He even has his own signature entry, with invisible weapons.
Pereira completely captured the imagination of combat fans. It is fun to look at, fun to speak, even fun to make a completely hypothetical matchmaking, because there is a good chance that it contributes to three different divisions of the UFC before everything is finished.
And in the other corner, there is Ankalaev, a black hole from which no personality can escape. This is the kind of fighter who is somehow really, really good without being at all memorable. His first fight for the title of light heavyweights of the UFC ended with a draw against Jan Blachowicz and all that I remember having thought during the fight was, ‘Wow, you tell me that one of these guys must be champion after that ?? ‘ (It turns out not, the judges launched their hands and the UFC decided to pass entirely.)
The Ankalaev fight won to arrive here, beating Aleksandr Rakic by unanimous decision at the UFC 308 in order to cement his place as a higher candidate, I fell asleep. It’s true. It’s not me exaggerating to make a point. It was not even late at night either. It was a fight broadcast on a Saturday afternoon in my time zone. I remember seeing the majority of the first round, then I remember seeing it getting my hand to get up. Between the two, I was unconscious and happy.
What is crazy is that you are watching his album and it’s not like you see a series of boring decisions. For a dominant Darestani fighter on a sequence of victories, there are quite a few finishes with direct elimination and performance bonuses in his history. The man really has some protruding facts to show.
However, there is just something in him. That is to say, there is nothing in him. His fights are a bit like films “Mission: Impossible”, in the sense that they are well in the moment, but in a way completely forgettable once they are finished.
If he was about to take the title of a champion who was also commonplace as a personality while being excellent as a fighter, it would not be serious. But Ankalaev tries to take over for “Poatan”, a man who can make an arena of fans to go mad saying a word without facial expression.
People love this guy. They love to watch him fight. They see in him all the things they want a champion to be: boastful, elegant and completely terrifying. And now, we could be about to exchange it for a guy who, when asked to tell us something – anything – on himself, must be satisfied: I guess I like to ride a horse?
It is a gradient, without a doubt. This is particularly true for the UFC, which tried to resist even making this fight. When Ankalaev says that brass has “protected” Pereira, he is half reason. What UFC leaders really protected was their own benefits. Pereira is a big business as a champion. Ankalaev would only be business.
And hell is that he could absolutely win this fight. He is a good versatile fighter with forces that perfectly correspond to the weaknesses of Pereira. If he fights intelligent and does not let his ego take the best of him, he could very well wake up on Sunday morning as UFC heavyweight champion.
If this happens, there will be a lot of festivities in Daghestan, and in the small group of hotel rooms from Ankalaev in Las Vegas … and essentially nowhere.
But this is the thing about the fighting game: it is brutally fair, in its own way. Once they lock this cage door, it doesn’t matter whether you are the president of the popular class or the kid whose name of the gym teacher is still wrong. If you can go out and do it, you are the man. And then no matter what someone thinks – or if he has fun at all.
