If you ask one UFC analyst, Alex Pereira shouldn’t have been booked in a rematch with Magomed Ankalaev.
Pereira lost the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship to Ankalaev back in March. Ankalaev forced Pereira to fight while moving backward, which was unfamiliar territory for “Poatan.” The constant pressure from Ankalaev paid dividends, as he was able to secure the unanimous decision victory to obtain UFC gold for the first time in his pro MMA career.
While Pereira is looking to reclaim the throne at 205 pounds, Chael Sonnen isn’t so sure that anybody truly wants this fight.
“Nobody asked for this rematch,” Sonnen told MMA Junkie. “You didn’t ask for it. I didn’t ask for it. You couldn’t go to Twitter, you couldn’t go to Google, you couldn’t even get Grok to show you a person that asked for this rematch. (Dana White) said, ‘Listen, it’s the best against the best. This is what we do here, and therefore it’s this fight.’”
Sonnen was expecting Pereira to try his hand in the heavyweight division to shake things up in the weight class.
“I still wish that he would become a heavyweight,” Sonnen said. “There’s not another fight at 205 that I want to see for him. He definitely wants to be a heavyweight, and he’s even telling that story on his own Instagram where he’s putting out pictures on the scale, and he’s 246. He’s putting out the message to the audience, ‘I’m big enough to this, this is what I want to do.’ But why do we have to get him beat twice?”
While Pereira has teased a move to heavyweight in the past, it’s clear he feels there is some unfinished business with Ankalaev. If “Poatan” can get revenge on Ankalaev, he will continue adding to his legacy as a two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. A loss is the situation that Sonnen fears, as it could hurt Pereira’s stock.
Alex Pereira will challenge Magomed Ankalaev for the 205-pound gold in the main event of UFC 320 on Oct. 4.
