Immediate rematch time?
Alex Pereira lost his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight championship at UFC 313 last night (Sat., March 8, 2024), losing a pretty lackluster unanimous decision to Magomed Ankalaev from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
With the competitive and close fight between Pereira and Ankalaev (check the scorecards), you would think “Poatan” would be granted an immediate rematch, especially because of his dominance in the division and status as the UFC’s biggest current active star.
Well, it looks like it’s going to happen.
UFC CEO Dana White was asked during the UFC 313 post-fight press conference (watch here) if the two headliners should run it back, and he said, “Probably.”
And honestly, it makes complete sense unless Pereira ditches his current division, as he did after his loss to Israel Adesanya, and makes the jump to Heavyweight to try and be a three-division champion.
But if “Poatan” does get the immediate rematch, will he have to hunker down and do fewer side quests in order to defeat Ankalaev, who is riding an impressive 12-fight winning streak?
We’ll have to see, however; nevertheless, Pereira had his five-fight win streak snapped and suffered his first loss at Light Heavyweight.
For complete UFC 313 results and play-by-play, click here.
