UFC 313 – Alex Pereira vs Magomed Ankalaev headlines
Alex Pereira vs Magomed Ankalaev set for UFC 313
UFC 311‘s commentary team has just announced a very exciting championship fight coming to us in late winter at UFC 313.
UFC 313 is to go down on March 8, 2025, live from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
UFC light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (12-2) is finally set to face the longtime no. 1 contender and to many, the uncrowned champion of the division in Magomed Ankalaev (20-1-1).
Pereira, following his claim of the middleweight title when he defeated Israel Adesanya at UFC 281, would lose in their immediate rematch five months later.
The former two-division kickboxing champion then moved up to 205 lbs, where he defeated former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in his divisional debut at UFC 291. He then went into a title fight against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295, who he TKO’d in round two to become a two-division UFC champion.
Since the Alex Pereira has defended his title three times against the likes of former champions Jamahal Hill (KO) and Jiri Prochazka (KO) in their rematch, and then most recently Khalil Rountree Jr (TKO) this past October at UFC 307.
Ankalaev on the other hand, following defeat in his UFC debut to Paul Craig (triangle choke), has since gone unbeaten in his last 13-straight fights; mind you he won every second of the Craig fight, he was mauling Craig and got submitted at 4:59 of round three in perhaps the craziest Hail Mary MMA has ever seen.
The Russian contender began this win streak in 2018 when he stopped Marcin Prachnio (KO), before defeating the likes of Klidson Abreu (UD), Dalcha Lungiambula (KO), Ion Cutelaba twice (TKO, KO), Nikita Krylov (UD), Volkan Oezdemir (UD), Thiago Santos (UD), and Anthony Smith (TKO), the last three of which were former title challengers.
This led up to his UFC 282 title shot opposing former champion Jan Blachowicz, who he battled to a draw against, most of the MMA fanbase including Blachowicz himself believing Ankalaev deserved to walk away from that fight as champion.
That was over two years ago, and he’s now finally getting his second shot, but it didn’t come easily.
Magomed Ankalaev returned nearly a year later to illegally knee Johnny Walker, who though he was beating, the fight was declared a no contest as a result. After a year and a half and two fights without a win Ankalaev defeated Johnny Walker (KO) in their immediate rematch, before defeating Aleksandar Rakic (UD) in October at UFC 308.
This is easily the most important fight to make in the entire sport of mixed martial arts currently, Jon Jones versus Tom Aspinall is the only one that even comes close, and it’s a blessing to see it’s finally been signed.
Who walks away from UFC 313 with the light-heavyweight championship?
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