Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev fights Bogdan Guskov in the main event of this weekend’s UFC Fight night 282 event, but he’s already looking ahead to a potential trilogy fight with his rival Alex Pereira.

“I will be chasing that fight,” Ankalaev told Red Corner MMA. “No matter if it takes place at Heavyweight or Light Heavyweight. Although he moved up, so I’m not just focusing on him. I have some business to finish at the Light Heavyweight division. But at the end of the day, as long as he’s not retired, I’m sure the UFC would be interested.

“We are 1-1. I won the first fight, and I think it’s fair to say it was domination. I lost the second one, but it was just an accident. I think the third fight should be very exciting for the fans. Time will tell.”

Pereira will no doubt beg to differ regarding his 80 second TKO victory over Ankalaev being branded an ‘accident’, but it’s fair to say that the 34-year-old didn’t head into that rematch under ideal circumstances, with his manager Ali Abdelaziz having revealed after the fight that Ankalaev had been unable to do any kind of sparring for 40 days beforehand due to having ‘messed up ribs’.

Pereira has since moved up to heavyweight and subsequently suffered a a TKO loss to Ciyl Gane in an interim title fight, so it’s not clear what the future holds for him at this stage.

And meanwhile a win for Ankalaev on Saturday night could potentially put him back in line for a title shot against newly crowned champ Carlos Ulberg.