The UFC’s newly crowned light-heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev appears to have nothing but good things to say about the man he just dethroned on Saturday night, Alex Pereira, but it seems he has absolutely no time for another potential title challenger, Jiri Prochazka.
“It was an honor sharing the cage with you,” Ankalaev had wrote to Pereira on Twitter after beating him by unanimous decision at UFC 313 this past weekend. “You are a great champion and your team, your coaches have a lot of class. Let’s run it back anytime you want.”
Ankalaev then went on to assess his performance, noting that his pressure on the feet was the key to his victory.
“I just watch the whole fight, I can out-strike the best strikers,” Ankalaev wrote. “First three rounds I made up my mind I will just strike with him, it was so much fun and it was not easy when all your opponent does is running. My pressure today was my best weapon and I’m very happy.”
Ankalaev’s good mood quickly darkened however after a post from former champion Jiri Prochazka congratulating him on his win.
“Congrats to @AnkalaevM, beautiful pressure,” Prochazka wrote. “Most of people dont like it, but you won the title for now.
“@alexpereiraufc last dance ?
“Or better idea Let’s go straightly to hunt the title.”
Ankalaev didn’t take kindly to that and launched into a ruthless dressing down of the No.2 ranked Prochazka, who is coming off a TKO win against Jamahal Hill in January.
“I think you are a fraud and so many guys deserve it more than you you need to go win some fights,” Ankalaev replied.
“This guy is a terrible fighter,” Ankalaev also wrote in response to a post from ESPN about Prochazka.
Prochazka has since responded during an interview on the Ariel Helwani Show.
“He doesn’t know me, I don’t know him personally,” Prochazka told Helwani. “One thing that I can say to Ankalaev: he can think whatever he wants, but I know that the only person who is a fraud is him. Because when I met him at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, he was there, very nice, friendly. ‘Hello, nice to meet you!’, all good. And right now, he’s a superstar, big gangster and playing these games. Hyped, and I understand, he won the title against the worst performance of Alex Pereira’s [career].
“The only fraud here is Magomed Ankalaev. Worst fighter? Every time I’m giving everything into my fights, going to finish my opponents and to give it my all…unlike him! When he’s fighting, many times in the second or third rounds, when there’s a [need for] a high performance, he’s trying to run away…so that only means one thing, the only fraud person here is Magomed Ankalaev… I’ll do whatever is necessary to catch Ankalaev.”
