With UFC 313 drawing nearer, fighters and analysts are weighing in and offering their predictions for the sunshine heavyweight championship major occasion. Mild heavyweight champion Alex Pereira places his title on the road in opposition to prime contender Magomed Ankalaev within the headlining bout.
Former featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski gave his breakdown of the matchup and revealed his prediction on his YouTube channel.
“Initially, once I heard about this battle I used to be like, that is is a tricky matchup for Pereira. I nonetheless suppose it’s a powerful matchup,” Volkanovksi mentioned. “However then the increasingly I look into it and chat about it, Pereira, his takedown protection is getting higher and higher.”
“Let’s bear in mind his battle with Jan Blachowicz. (He) was in a position to cease takedowns, get again to his ft. Confirmed a whole lot of enhancements in his takedown protection in opposition to a strong wrestler. Most likely not so good as Ankalaev. I feel Ankalaev’s wrestling and grappling goes to be significantly better than Jan Blachowicz to be fairly trustworthy. However I feel Pereira’s confidence understanding – He is all the time had a superb understanding, however now an excellent higher understanding of the grappling, takedown protection. All that type of stuff,” continued Volkanovski.
“The Nice” believes Pereira will have the ability to deal with Ankalaev’s grappling and keep away from being submitted if the battle goes to the bottom.
“On the ft, Ankalaev, nice fighter. Southpaw. Does some nice issues. Can look very efficient on his ft, however Pereira is insanely good on the ft,” Volkanovski mentioned.
“I feel it will be onerous to wager in opposition to Alex Pereira with simply how issues are going to be. That inside leg kick. I do not know for those who bear in mind with Jan Blachowicz and Ankalaev, was in a position to make a multitude of Ankalaev’s lead leg. So clearly for him (Pereira) to seek out that chance, it will be there.”
Volkanovski finally picked the champion to retain the title through knockout citing his accuracy and countering means.
“I’m going to go along with the favourite on this one, Alex Pereira. KO. I’ll go along with KO or TKO. I feel with him, it is all the time a reasonably protected wager,” he mentioned. “I am pondering possibly second or third spherical KO.”
