UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is coming under fire for his preview of Saturday’s pay-per-view main event.
Alex Pereira will have his chance for revenge this Saturday at UFC 320, almost seven months after he was unseated from the light heavyweight throne.
In the October 4 headliner at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, Pereira will challenge Magomed Ankalaev in an immediate rematch. Despite being outmatched in the first fight, ‘Poatan’ is extremely confident of making his Dagestani rival’s title reign a short one.
Aspinall, though, does not appear to be so sure.
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Tom Aspinall says Alex Pereira had ‘favorable’ fights until crumbling to Magomed Ankalaev’s takedown threat
Ankalaev has vowed to finish Pereira the second time around, believing himself to be superior to the powerful ex-kickboxer in all departments. The key to his victory in the eyes of Aspinall is the champ’s takedown threat.
During a recent episode of his Fight Lab show on the TNT Sports YouTube channel, the heavyweight king suggested Pereira had enjoyed a “favorable” run in the UFC before running into Ankalaev’s grappling skills.
That claim comes despite the Dagestani landing zero of his 12 takedown attempts at UFC 313 this past April. For Aspinall, the threat of it alone is enough to make the difference.
“I think the matchups were quite favorable to Alex Pereira up until Magomed Ankalaev,” Aspinall said.
“Just with the threats of the takedown, even in the first fight we didn’t really see Ankalaev really go for the takedowns too much, but I think just the threat being there, stylistically he’s a bad matchup for Pereira,” he added.
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Fans send Tom Aspinall reminders about Alex Pereira’s UFC record
When it comes to the point about takedowns, some fans reminded Aspinall of how many Ankalaev attempted and dismissed the suggestion they were not designed to actually take things to the ground.
Others, meanwhile, focused on the claim that Pereira had been given a “favorable” run by pointing out Ankalaev was not the first to introduce wrestling against the Brazilian.
“Yeah, Ankalaev fighting (Ion) Cutelaba, (Johnny) Walker, Anthony Smith, (Aleksandar) Rakic…Come on,” one wrote, flipping the script on Aspinall’s view of Pereira’s run.
“Tom rules over a division of bums. I don’t want to see him talking about having it easy.”
“Tom’s best win is Curtis Blaydes lmao.”
“How was Jan Blachowicz a favorable matchup for Pereira when he fought him after getting knocked out by Izzy three months before?”
“Then again, the entire heavyweight division is essentially a poor matchup for anyone with a hint of athleticism.”
“Delusional.”
“Aspinall is always hating on ‘Poatan’ over eye contact they made almost 3 years ago.”
“Bruh, horrible take. He fought Jan before, and even Jiri (Prochazka) tried to wrestle with him.”
But Aspinall was not without his supporters, with some agreeing with the Englishman’s sentiment about Ankalaev’s takedown threat being Pereira’s undoing.
“The takedown threat is one of the MOST powerful weapons there is.”
“He’s correct.”
“I agree. Jiri has been known for having bad defense on the feet and Hill sucks…and Rountree was untested at high-level competition at the time.”
“Tom knows ball. They were trying to build (him) up, which isn’t a bad thing.”
“I mean…he’s not wrong.”