Being a great fighter doesn’t always translate into becoming a star in combat sports.
The UFC brand sells itself at this point but MMA as a whole needs stars in order to really thrive and generate buzz across the sporting world.
For every Alex Pereira who seemingly can’t put a foot wrong in this regard, you have his UFC 313 opponent, Magomed Ankalaev.
Many fight fans have claimed for several years that the Russian fighter is the 205-pound champion in waiting but his personality and fighting style doesn’t always make him the most exciting option.
Even when he did get a shot at the vacant title, his fight with Jan Blachowicz at UFC 282 ended in a draw which led to him working his way back up the pecking order.
Ankalaev’s long awaited second shot at the gold is just around the corner as he prepares to challenge ‘Poatan’ on March 8 in Las Vegas but one former fighter believes that he should be used as a bargaining chip.
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Din Thomas says that the UFC should trade Magomed Ankalaev for PFL star Dakota Ditcheva
During a recent appearance on The Casuals MMA podcast, former fighter turned commentator Din Thomas spoke about the need for promotions to create stars.
The conversation then turned to the PFL who have acquired multiple big names in recent years without necessarily developing their own.
There are some exceptions to that rule and by far the most obvious one is Dakota Ditcheva.
The undefeated striking specialist emerged as one of the top flyweights in the world last year after winning four consecutive fights with four finishes to claim the World Championship.
There has been a lot of talk ever since about whether the undefeated 26-year-old will step inside the Octagon at some point in the near future.
Whilst it seems incredibly unlikely that the PFL would swap Ditcheva in a similar exchange to when the UFC and ONE Championship swapped Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren back in 2018, Thomas quickly named Magomed Ankalaev as a guy that could go the opposite way in the transaction.
“They don’t have stars. I mean they got Dakota Ditcheva, who’s a star.” Thomas said.
“I’m like, ‘Yo please listen, if you guys like MMA, do this for MMA. Trade her to the UFC, you know she belongs in the UFC’. Just trade, listen, get rid of Ankalaev in the UFC, trade her for Ankalaev, we don’t need Ankalaev, you know what I’m saying. He’s not getting the title, we don’t need this guy, trade him for Dakota. Ankalaev will fit right in at the PFL, another guy that no one knows about that’s really good.”
Magomed Ankalaev could finally reach the top at UFC 313
Magomed Ankalaev may have had to wait a long time and continuously prove himself to earn his title shot at UFC 313 but now his fate is in his own hands.
In the fight capital of the world, he will look to dethrone one of the biggest stars in the sport today in a matchup that many believe to be the toughest test of Alex Pereira’s career so far.
Ankalaev has had to overcome a lot of hurdles but after doing that, he is now just one fight away from having the power in his hands.
Beating ‘Poatan’ won’t be easy but it’s exactly what Ankalaev has been working towards despite all of the pushback that he has faced along the way.