Alex Pereira is smartly not taking Magomed Ankalaev’s previous comments as total fact. The two men are set to finally meet in the main event of UFC 313 on March 8 in Las Vegas in what many believe will be the defending champion’s toughest test to date.
In recent times, Ankalaev has largely relied on his striking and whilst he hasn’t had a reason to abandon this approach because it has been working, everyone knows that he is a talented grappler even if he hasn’t shown that inside the Octagon for some time. In pursuing this fight with “Poatan”, the challenger has claimed that he is only going to stand and strike with Pereira which would seemingly put him at a disadvantage.
Pereira has accomplished incredible things since signing with the UFC in 2021 but what makes his success even more impressive is that he’s still playing catch-up to the opponents that he faces who will have vastly more experience than him both in the cage and in the MMA gym. In a recent clip posted on social media, fans got to see some insight into the evolution of the 205-pound champion.
The former Glory kickboxer recently spent some time training in Brazil alongside the Fighting Nerds team who have got some serious momentum behind them right now following star-making years for the likes of Jean Silva and Carlos Prates. The gym’s Instagram page posted a video of Pereira doing some grappling arounds alongside Geovanis Palacios who is a former Olympic wrestler for Cuba who has 7 MMA bouts under his belt.
Pereira is already a master striker so it makes sense that he would be continuing to put himself through the grappling ringer just in case Ankalaev decides to flip the script that he has wrote himself in Las Vegas.
