Magomed Ankalaev continued his unbeaten streak with a decision win over Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 and now he’s hoping he finally got Alex Pereira’s attention.
Over three rounds, Ankalaev showed he was the superior striker as he continued chipping away at Rakic and looking to set up a potential fight finishing sequence. The knockout never came but Ankalaev kept Rakic on his backfoot for the entire fight as he cruised to victory with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 in his favor.
“I kept running after him but it was really hard to catch him,” Ankalaev said about his performance. “I don’t want to say anything bad about him but I didn’t understand his striking at all. Very uncomfortable opponent for me.”
The massive light heavyweights exchanged some huge, heavy kicks early with both trying to find an opening to do maximum damage. Ankalaev was marching forward and closing the distance on the taller fighter but Rakic was doing a good job keeping him honest with some well-timed straight punches and mixing in more of those long, rangy kicks.
While Rakic kept tossing out a head kick, Ankalaev displayed good hand speed and power with his boxing as he continued leading the dance. Ankaleav continued stabbing at Rakic with a variety of punches including a stiff shot to the body that definitely got his opponent’s attention.
Ankalaev was really starting to mix up his punches, tossing out a straight right and the following with a slick left uppercut behind it. As time passed, Rakic was stuck playing defense with Ankalaev really finding his rhythm on the feet.
With less than a minute remaining in the second round, Ankalaev mashed Rakic’s face with a nasty straight left down the middle. Rakic kept thrown back at him but Ankalaev was really beginning to control the action with his superior striking.
Ankalaev stayed on the gas moving forward and unleashing more and more of those straight left hands that just kept finding a home on Rakic’s chin. As time ticked away to the final horn, Ankalaev continued to punish Rakic on the inside with heavy punches and knees as he did more than enough to ensure that he would leave Abu Dhabi with the win.
Following his latest performance to stay unbeaten for 13 consecutive fights, Ankalaev wasted no time turning his attention to the UFC light heavyweight champion with hopes that a title shot is next in 2025.
“I think I’ve done everything to deserve the next title shot,” Ankalaev said. “I’d like to tell Alex, stop running away from me. Alex, stop running away from me.”
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