Former UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis has predicted that Alex Pereira will win back his 205lb title when he rematches Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320 this weekend.
“It’s tough,” du Plessis said when asked for his prediction on the fight by Fight Forecast “I know Pereira took a step away for a while, and that’s good. He was too active, I think. A lot of people want to see these fighters being active. I like fighters that are active, but he was — it’s impressive. That’s why I rate Pereira as one of the greatest combat athletes to ever walk this Earth. Just the way he’s been, he came in with not a lot of experience, and he just ran through everybody. And the best of the best!
“But with Ankalaev, he’s big, he’s strong, and that first fight, he just had the answers to beat Pereira, and he fought a smart fight. Not necessarily the most exciting style, but he fought a smart fight. Don’t give Pereira the distance where he can catch you with those massive punches.
“I’ve been looking at the training footage of Pereira for this one; he looks scary. He looks angry, and we’ll see what that loss did to him. He has come back from a loss, came back to reclaim the title, but this fight is a big fight for him. And Ankalaev now has that confidence, of course, of being the champion. But I’m gonna go Pereira on this one.”
“I think what’s going to happen here is he’s coming to prove a point,” du Plessis continued. “He’s not a young guy anymore. He’s nearing the end of his career, so it’s going to be exciting to see what he does after this, regardless of the outcome. But I honestly feel, the way I saw him in training, the stuff that I saw, he looks sharper, more intense.
“But the striking was never the problem. It’s going to be interesting to see. It wasn’t the fact that he got taken down; it was the fact that he got smothered. For a striker, that’s not going to be so hard to out, ‘This is how I don’t get smothered.’ Learn to fight in that clinch, because he has the elbows, he has the knees, he has all that. So he’s going to need to keep his back off the fence, and I do believe they’ve spent enough time working on that. And him taking some time away from the sport was good for him. Sometimes you need to do that to get that reset and get that hunger back.”
DDP then concluded by questioning whether Ankalaev’s plan to strike with the kickboxing ace was a wise strategy.
“I know Ankalaev says he’s going to strike with him. I don’t think that’s a great idea,” du Plessis said. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea. I really don’t see this fight going the distance this time. I’m putting my money on Pereira to reclaim the belt. I have to go with him.”
