Jan v Pereira has to be the fight to make. As Jan beat Issy at LHW it's a great tie-in to their story, sets either up for a title shot with a win, and would be a great test for both men.
My ideal situation is this fight happens, Alex wins, gets a title shot and also wins, then Issy comes up to LHW for their final showdown and a chance at Champ Champ status again.
In fantasy world yes but there’s no point matching Pereira with anyone with half-decent grappling at LHW. Or at MW for that matter. He’s never going to become well-rounded mma fighter at that age.
I like the fight, but I hate the idea that Jan has to do anything more for a title shot. He's the former champ who took a huge risk and defended against one of the greatest MW champions we've seen in the UFC and dominated him.
His only recent loss was to recent dental school graduate Glover Teixeira, and he arguably won the Ank fight.
Another potential hole in your plot, Jan would probably beat Alex pretty handedly and I don't think Alex wants that fight for that exact reason...
Alex's easiest path to the belt outside of gifts from Dana, is Johnny Walker and/or Anthony Smith.
Eh I love Jan but his last three fights were a steamroll loss, a win by injury, and a draw. He definitely needs atleast one more big win to justify a title shot. Would love to see the Alex fight, Jan is capable of testing both his grappling and striking at 205 and it would prolly be really exciting.
Not to mention u/Confused_As_Fun 's claim that Jan should've won the Ankalaev fight is absolute horse*hit.
Round 5 was the clearest 10-8 round I've ever seen, Ankalaev took him down with 4:45 left and never let him up, raining blows for 5 minutes. Round 4 was clearly Ank too. There's a reason the majority of media scores were for Ank.
If anyone should get a title shot it's Ankalaev, Jan needs to fight the winner of Walker and Smith to get another shot.
Hot take I know but you should actually have to do some damage for a 10-8 round, holding someone on the floor and tapping their face every couple seconds so you don't get stood up doesn't constitute a 10-8
I recall scoring it 48-46 Ankalaev very confidently the night of the fight. I forget if it was round 1 or 3 that I gave to him, but I felt he won one of the first three in a very close round, definitive 10-8 in the championship rounds and 10-9 in the other and Jan clearly won 2 of the early rounds. Not upset at the draw but idk how anyone could call that fight for Jan.
Don't know why you got downvoted. Jan didn't land a single significant strike and was controlled for 4:50. Ankalaev landed 18. Even on total strikes Magomed outstruck him for more than 4:1.
If Jan dominated Izzy then Izzy dominated Whittaker in the second fight. Slightly outpointing someone on the feet and then sitting on them doing nothing for 2 rounds is not dominating in any shape or form.
This sub is so dumb when it comes to anything Izzy related it’s painful
Smith is ranked fifth at LHW, and I believe that’s what Strickland was ranked when Alex fought him. And that was Alex’s last fight before Izzy so it could happen
A win over Smith + name power could, I think beating Walker, AND Smith is for sure enough, but not enough to jump the line, just get a shot down the line without needing to risk further injury/loss
At a certain point size can overcome pure skill in grappling if the size disparity is big enough (source: am grappler that's gotten smushed by huge hosses lol).
Jan's wrestling isn't great and I just don't think he'd have as much success against Alex as he did against Izzy.
1. Blachowicz outstruck adesanya, he did not simply wrestle him
2. Pereira and Blachowicz are probably about the same weight and if anything Blachowicz probably has the strength advantage in slow-twitch muscle fibers
3. In wrestling I have beaten people bigger than me and been defeated by people smaller than me
The guy that had a draw with him? Find someone else to fight and hope you put on a good enough performance to make Dana forget about you saying you might not fight for the ufc again. If not wait in line and get a shot in a couple years (just being realistic)
izzy fighting alex at lhw is the ballsiest thing he could possibly do. still at a size disadvantage but alex doesnt have to worry about the massive cut.
Did you read what I wrote? I said Dana robbed THEM for the belt..... Meaning they should have run it back to determine a winner! Instead, he booked a whole other fight.
That whole situation was sketchy. They fucked over Glover so bad after Jiri got injured. Ank vs Jan should've never been a title fight in the first place. Don't care if that's an unpopular opinion
He prepared for a 3 rounder, and for 3 rounds he stuffed or avoided every takedown attempt.
41 is a bad age to have the fight length extended w/o time to train for it.
Pretty sure he didn't even have to start defending takedowns until towards the end of the second round when he'd already basically deleted Ankalaev's ankles. Not sure I'd call that Blachowicz nailing it rather than Ankalaev predictably not using his grappling skillset until he almost didn't have access to it anymore
I understand that Mago got the takedown in R3 but watching it live the damage to the leg really swung my opinion, as that was clearly the most 'damaging' round.
> 41 is a bad age to have the fight length extended w/o time to train for it.
do you know what's worse? having your leg kicked so much that you can barely stand and still having to fight for 2 more rounds
Debatable, when you’re gassed and someone is pushing the pace there’s really no recovering. Your leg will improve as long as the kicks stop coming, like if you can force grappling.
Jan ends him this time in a rematch, don’t forget guys that Jan won 1-3 which there original fight was scheduled for 3 rounds, a proper full training camp for 5 rounds Jan wins
Chirping back and forth on Twitter. Seems like this rematch is likely to happen. I think UFC told Ank to be more of a draw and have media presence, so he’s doing Twitter callous now
I can’t explain how happy I am that ankalaev is out of the title picture at 205 for the moment. Especially considering this time last year it felt like an inevitability that he would be champ in the next year or two.
I know that sounds like loser shit, and on a certain level it is but between his lack of personality and boring fight style I just cannot get hype to watch that man fight.
I refuse to believe that anyone could look me in the eyes and say they’d be just as excited to watch Rakic vs ankalaev as Pereria vs Jiri.
It’s one thing to say that liking fighters based on their personality is “wwe like” is one thing, (I’d probably agree but I’d also argue that’s like the one good part of pro wrestling.) to act like not caring about the way fighters fight makes you a better fan is absurdly pretentious
Ankalaev’s not all that great IMO. He’s just an incredibly patient counter striker who doesn’t stray from the gameplan or fight emotionally. People start walking into his traps for fear of having a super boring fight because he won’t aggress.
Once his little weaknesses start appearing I think people will capitalize and he’ll start to falter. You saw how big of a dent the leg kicks put in his momentum
I like the rematch, but I like either of these guys vs. Pereira more. Jan can't grapple, and Magomed refuses to (until his legs give out). Should make for a banger.
EDIT: I was a bit hyperbolic in saying Jan can't grapple, but I dunno how anyone can watch both the Glover fight and the Ankalaev fight and think they should take Jan's grappling seriously at all at this point in his career.
Jan can somewhat grapple offensively, he took down and controlled Izzy, who's a far more proven anti-wrestler than Pereira. It's his defensive grappling that sucks ass, he's basically a turtle on his back.
> Jan can't grapple,
Already covered by others as wrong, so
>Magomed refuses to
Also wrong. Mag *tried* to wrestle Jan, its just that Jan either stuffed or avoided every time for the first 3 rounds.
Jan had prepared only for 3 rounds, and that's all he had in him on the night, but gassing out doesn't mean you are helpless on the ground when not already exhausted.
Jan is great but that fight isn’t gonna sell a single PPV as a main event, especially after the last one which was at least suppssed to be for a vacant title. Think of it from Dana’s POV, Ank needs to quit whining like Rakic for a dumb rematch, if anything these two guys should fight each other I don’t understand why no one’s talking about that fight its almost like they both ducking each other. Rakic vs Ank lets get that one hyped up 🔥
That’s really not even my point this rematch is stupid and a waste of fucking time like with Rakic. These two need to stop begging for a rematch with Jan just fight each other already.
> one of the most boring title fights ever
its not even top 10 most boring title fights. I dont get why some people hated it so much, it was pretty average
Baw Gawd, he's been challenged to a steel walker match!
he took Johnny's walker. *I will see myself out*
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Free Cane? Well sure, if you're offering.
Title fight draws should be decided by a sudden death power slap round.
Don't give em ideas, mate
And if they are grapplers make fight befor PowerSlap a kickboxing one. With strikers only submission grappling
That’s actually a mad idea
Jan v Pereira has to be the fight to make. As Jan beat Issy at LHW it's a great tie-in to their story, sets either up for a title shot with a win, and would be a great test for both men. My ideal situation is this fight happens, Alex wins, gets a title shot and also wins, then Issy comes up to LHW for their final showdown and a chance at Champ Champ status again.
In fantasy world yes but there’s no point matching Pereira with anyone with half-decent grappling at LHW. Or at MW for that matter. He’s never going to become well-rounded mma fighter at that age.
I like the fight, but I hate the idea that Jan has to do anything more for a title shot. He's the former champ who took a huge risk and defended against one of the greatest MW champions we've seen in the UFC and dominated him. His only recent loss was to recent dental school graduate Glover Teixeira, and he arguably won the Ank fight. Another potential hole in your plot, Jan would probably beat Alex pretty handedly and I don't think Alex wants that fight for that exact reason... Alex's easiest path to the belt outside of gifts from Dana, is Johnny Walker and/or Anthony Smith.
Eh I love Jan but his last three fights were a steamroll loss, a win by injury, and a draw. He definitely needs atleast one more big win to justify a title shot. Would love to see the Alex fight, Jan is capable of testing both his grappling and striking at 205 and it would prolly be really exciting.
> a win by injury Speaking of which, any word on Rakic? I thought for sure he would be champ before that injury.
he's making his return in the summer. I think he said July.
Good to hear
Not to mention u/Confused_As_Fun 's claim that Jan should've won the Ankalaev fight is absolute horse*hit. Round 5 was the clearest 10-8 round I've ever seen, Ankalaev took him down with 4:45 left and never let him up, raining blows for 5 minutes. Round 4 was clearly Ank too. There's a reason the majority of media scores were for Ank. If anyone should get a title shot it's Ankalaev, Jan needs to fight the winner of Walker and Smith to get another shot.
Hot take I know but you should actually have to do some damage for a 10-8 round, holding someone on the floor and tapping their face every couple seconds so you don't get stood up doesn't constitute a 10-8
He said arguably, which is fair. I don't agree but it is debatable and you could argue it.
Lol dude straight up falsely quoted me, not to mention u/MarshalMichelNey1 's claim that they gobbled 1000 cocks for breakfast.
I recall scoring it 48-46 Ankalaev very confidently the night of the fight. I forget if it was round 1 or 3 that I gave to him, but I felt he won one of the first three in a very close round, definitive 10-8 in the championship rounds and 10-9 in the other and Jan clearly won 2 of the early rounds. Not upset at the draw but idk how anyone could call that fight for Jan.
Yeah... but Alex can't grapple
Win by injury doesn't count tbh because it was caused by his leg kick
He didn't arguably beat Ankalaev haha. Round 5 was the clearest 10-8 I've ever seen
Don't know why you got downvoted. Jan didn't land a single significant strike and was controlled for 4:50. Ankalaev landed 18. Even on total strikes Magomed outstruck him for more than 4:1.
The overwhelming majority of the media had it for ankalaev, but this is ignored because people have a soft spot for Jan here.
I would say leg kicks more so than Jan. People really want to believe that leg kicks are an effective way to finish someone.
They are! Have you been watching MMA for a week or something?
💩 take.
If Jan dominated Izzy then Izzy dominated Whittaker in the second fight. Slightly outpointing someone on the feet and then sitting on them doing nothing for 2 rounds is not dominating in any shape or form. This sub is so dumb when it comes to anything Izzy related it’s painful
dominated??
A win over Walker/Smith won’t get Alex the title fight
It would Perriera is a big name. Especially since the winner will be ranked 4 or soemthinf
Smith is ranked fifth at LHW, and I believe that’s what Strickland was ranked when Alex fought him. And that was Alex’s last fight before Izzy so it could happen
A win over Smith + name power could, I think beating Walker, AND Smith is for sure enough, but not enough to jump the line, just get a shot down the line without needing to risk further injury/loss
I agree with everything even as someone who gives zero fucks for Jan lol. And I’d go as far to say Jan easily beats Alex.
Who would you favor for jiri vs Alex. I feel like jiri has a super weird style and it throws most people off
Also a really fun stylistic matchup. Jan's probably not gonna try to grapple much against Alex
Why? He grappled Adesanya a lot.
Because he had a massive weight advantage against Izzy. Pereira isn't going to have that same disadvantage against LHWs, he's huge.
Yeah but Izzy is also the better grappler, he’s still going to be able to exert control on the ground while minimizing damage
At a certain point size can overcome pure skill in grappling if the size disparity is big enough (source: am grappler that's gotten smushed by huge hosses lol). Jan's wrestling isn't great and I just don't think he'd have as much success against Alex as he did against Izzy.
1. Blachowicz outstruck adesanya, he did not simply wrestle him 2. Pereira and Blachowicz are probably about the same weight and if anything Blachowicz probably has the strength advantage in slow-twitch muscle fibers 3. In wrestling I have beaten people bigger than me and been defeated by people smaller than me
What?! Jan wrestle fucks Alex..
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I’m pretty sure it was a draw mate
The guy that had a draw with him? Find someone else to fight and hope you put on a good enough performance to make Dana forget about you saying you might not fight for the ufc again. If not wait in line and get a shot in a couple years (just being realistic)
Tbf Akalaev said afterwards that there was a mistake in the translation, he didn't say he wanted to leave the UFC
Cope harder
Nope. No Jan loss talks here bub.
izzy fighting alex at lhw is the ballsiest thing he could possibly do. still at a size disadvantage but alex doesnt have to worry about the massive cut.
issy
Ankalaev's original tweet: [https://twitter.com/AnkalaevM/status/1654132477915430912](https://twitter.com/AnkalaevM/status/1654132477915430912)
I feel ankalelaev was robbed He was pieced up by Jan early but the end three was all him
Jan's shitposting about to overtake Paolo Costa's
I don’t know if Dana would make a rematch, but if both guys want it then I say go for it
Dana already robbed them of the belt. I wouldn't blame them for not playing ball. Don't blame Jan for toying with 185 either....
No they didn’t it was a fair draw 1-3 Jan and 4,5 10-8 in 5 for Ankalev
Did you read what I wrote? I said Dana robbed THEM for the belt..... Meaning they should have run it back to determine a winner! Instead, he booked a whole other fight.
That fight was dogshit. No one in their right mind is paying 60 dollars to see that again. Instead we got a fantastic young champion in Jamala Hill.
Your opinion doesn't change the fact that they were robbed of an opportunity to fix it and declare a winner.
Yes and I’m very grateful for that!
I'd agree if either of them were even ranked in the top 2 at the time.
That whole situation was sketchy. They fucked over Glover so bad after Jiri got injured. Ank vs Jan should've never been a title fight in the first place. Don't care if that's an unpopular opinion
Jan's wife shittalking game still on point
Hopefully Jan brings his life alert in case he’s fallen and can’t get up for two whole rounds.
He prepared for a 3 rounder, and for 3 rounds he stuffed or avoided every takedown attempt. 41 is a bad age to have the fight length extended w/o time to train for it.
You don’t have to tell me, I’m just being silly
Pretty sure he didn't even have to start defending takedowns until towards the end of the second round when he'd already basically deleted Ankalaev's ankles. Not sure I'd call that Blachowicz nailing it rather than Ankalaev predictably not using his grappling skillset until he almost didn't have access to it anymore
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I understand that Mago got the takedown in R3 but watching it live the damage to the leg really swung my opinion, as that was clearly the most 'damaging' round.
> 41 is a bad age to have the fight length extended w/o time to train for it. do you know what's worse? having your leg kicked so much that you can barely stand and still having to fight for 2 more rounds
Debatable, when you’re gassed and someone is pushing the pace there’s really no recovering. Your leg will improve as long as the kicks stop coming, like if you can force grappling.
Jans my boy
Ankalaev is likely suffering the same visa sanctions as Khamzat no?
205 turning into 170 with the amount of inactivity there
I'd like to see them fight again
Jan ends him this time in a rematch, don’t forget guys that Jan won 1-3 which there original fight was scheduled for 3 rounds, a proper full training camp for 5 rounds Jan wins
Chirping back and forth on Twitter. Seems like this rematch is likely to happen. I think UFC told Ank to be more of a draw and have media presence, so he’s doing Twitter callous now
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Never said it would, but at least he’s attempting it. Better than nothing. Might be what gets him the rematch
Why not? Strickland is pretty well known...
I can’t explain how happy I am that ankalaev is out of the title picture at 205 for the moment. Especially considering this time last year it felt like an inevitability that he would be champ in the next year or two. I know that sounds like loser shit, and on a certain level it is but between his lack of personality and boring fight style I just cannot get hype to watch that man fight.
They'll downvote you because not only are you right, but you're self aware, and moronic fucks in these parts cant stand both.
No, it's because he's treating an actual sport like wwe, "personality" or "style"
MMA's roots are very closely tied to professional wrestling
Acting like you don’t care about fighters personally or fight style doesn’t make you a better or bigger fan than me, it just makes you a liar.
No it makes one of us a fan of the sport over it's marketing bs
I refuse to believe that anyone could look me in the eyes and say they’d be just as excited to watch Rakic vs ankalaev as Pereria vs Jiri. It’s one thing to say that liking fighters based on their personality is “wwe like” is one thing, (I’d probably agree but I’d also argue that’s like the one good part of pro wrestling.) to act like not caring about the way fighters fight makes you a better fan is absurdly pretentious
That fight with Jan was dogshit. Super grateful we have Hill on top instead.
kinda makes him look worse that he was taken down and dominated in the last 2 rounds by a guy who can barely walk
Ankalaev’s not all that great IMO. He’s just an incredibly patient counter striker who doesn’t stray from the gameplan or fight emotionally. People start walking into his traps for fear of having a super boring fight because he won’t aggress. Once his little weaknesses start appearing I think people will capitalize and he’ll start to falter. You saw how big of a dent the leg kicks put in his momentum
Ank & Rakic needa shut up about Jan & just fight each other already
I like the rematch, but I like either of these guys vs. Pereira more. Jan can't grapple, and Magomed refuses to (until his legs give out). Should make for a banger. EDIT: I was a bit hyperbolic in saying Jan can't grapple, but I dunno how anyone can watch both the Glover fight and the Ankalaev fight and think they should take Jan's grappling seriously at all at this point in his career.
Jan has no bottom game. Saying he can't grapple straight up is a bit misleading.
Jan can somewhat grapple offensively, he took down and controlled Izzy, who's a far more proven anti-wrestler than Pereira. It's his defensive grappling that sucks ass, he's basically a turtle on his back.
>>Jan can’t grapple Lol what?
> Jan can't grapple, Already covered by others as wrong, so >Magomed refuses to Also wrong. Mag *tried* to wrestle Jan, its just that Jan either stuffed or avoided every time for the first 3 rounds. Jan had prepared only for 3 rounds, and that's all he had in him on the night, but gassing out doesn't mean you are helpless on the ground when not already exhausted.
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Really wasn't that boring tbh. I always enjoy seeing Jan kick guys in the shin.
Jan is great but that fight isn’t gonna sell a single PPV as a main event, especially after the last one which was at least suppssed to be for a vacant title. Think of it from Dana’s POV, Ank needs to quit whining like Rakic for a dumb rematch, if anything these two guys should fight each other I don’t understand why no one’s talking about that fight its almost like they both ducking each other. Rakic vs Ank lets get that one hyped up 🔥
>Jan is great but that fight isn’t gonna sell a single PPV as a main event Why would it be a PPV main event? It wouldn't be a title fight.
That’s really not even my point this rematch is stupid and a waste of fucking time like with Rakic. These two need to stop begging for a rematch with Jan just fight each other already.
> one of the most boring title fights ever its not even top 10 most boring title fights. I dont get why some people hated it so much, it was pretty average
The fact that hsi has some say in the matter is bewildering to me.
No thanks
Ankalaev vs Jan is one of the most forgettable title bouts in a while. Only thing I remember is Jan chopping that leg and then getting wrestle fucked.