After stopping Johnny Walker at UFC Vegas 84, Magomed Ankalaev threw his hat in the ring to be the next man in contention for Alex Pereira’s belt. Ankalaev said that he, not Jamahal Hill, was more deserving of the next shot at light heavyweight gold. His reasoning comes down to simple math.
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A refresher to jog your memory
Light heavyweight seems to be in a constant state of flux since the longest reigning light heavyweight champion in UFC history finally put his money where his mouth is and moved up to 265. Once Jon Jones vacated the title in August, 2020, the UFC wasted no time at all booking Jan Blachowicz against Dominick Reyes for the vacant belt.
As a matter of fact, just 44 days would pass from Jones’ announcement to the date of UFC 253 where Blachowicz would end up victorious over Reyes. He would also be the only man to defend the belt thus far. That defense came in March, 2021 against former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
After that, Blachowicz would face Glover Teixeira, who put an end to his 398-day run as champion at UFC 267. Glover Teixeira faced Jiri Prochazka at UFC 275 and ended up losing with just 28 seconds left in the fight, bringing an end to his champion run. It sadly lasted just 225 days.
Jiri and Glover were set to meet again in a rematch at UFC 282 but the new champ would suffer a shoulder injury in November 2022, and feeling that the honorable thing to do was vacate the belt so as not to tie it up too long, that’s exactly what he did. Glover declined a short notice fight against Magomed Ankalaev, who was facing Jan Blachowicz in the co-main event, so the UFC moved their fight into the headlining spot and made it for the vacant belt.
The fight would end in a split draw, so the UFC booked a new title fight at UFC 283 between Teixeira and Jamahal Hill. The fight went to decision and Hill would be crowned champion, but things take a turn for the worse for Hill very soon after he was crowned champion. In mid July last year, less than six months after claiming the belt, Hill would rupture his Achilles tendon in a pickup basketball game, so he, like Prochazka, vacated the title.
The belt would remain unclaimed until this past November. At UFC 295, former middleweight champion Alex Pereira would challenge Jiri Prochazka for the vacant belt. It was a fight that was immediately embraced by the community as soon as it was announced and when fight night rolled around, it would shockingly be Pereira’s hand raised in victory.
Has Magomed Ankalaev done enough to skip the line?
And that brings us to where we are currently. Pereira has the belt. The community hasn’t been too vocal on a preference of who he faces, and I have to wonder if it’s because neither Jamahal Hill nor Magomed Ankalaev have emerged as stars yet, and who knows if they ever will. Magomed’s comments in the post-fight presser were based entirely on stats:
“I think here the math works out to the way that I’m more deserving of the belt because I have 10 victories, six of them are knockouts. Jamahal Hill has eight fights total in the UFC. So, it is just clear that I’m a more deserving contender than Jamahal Hill.”
Now, I don’t know if that should be the sole criteria to usurp Hill’s spot, but it’s still unclear exactly when the former champ will return. If that date extends much farther than July, then I am all for Ankalaev stepping in. Truth be told, I don’t really care which one they decide on. It’s light heavyweight.
What do you think?
We’re pinning this post to our front-page all day to give our community a chance to have their say. So jump in the comments and tell us if you think Magomed Ankalaev should get the next crack at Pereira’s belt. But if you want to discuss anything else, that’s cool, too. You’ve got an open forum here, so use it.