Ahead of his UFC 320 title defense, Magomed Ankalaev has been told he is ‘hurting the UFC’ instead of benefiting them.
This coming Saturday, Magomed Ankalaev makes the first defense of his light heavyweight title, when he defends it against Alex Pereira in an immediate rematch at UFC 320.
When the two first met earlier this year at UFC 313, the Russian pulled off a big upset win when he dominated Pereira on the feet and dominated him for five rounds.
And despite being handed a rough loss by Ankalaev, ‘Poatan’ has seemingly already picked his next opponent for after UFC 320.
UFC legend claims Ankalaev is ‘hurting the UFC’
When the Brazilian reigned as the light heavyweight champion, he was widely regarded as one of the biggest stars in the sport because of his legendary run and his stoic personality.
But when Ankalaev dominated him to win the title, the Russian unfortunately didn’t see any of the star power transfer over to him.
So much so, that earlier this year, UFC analyst Din Thomas claimed that the UFC should offer Ankalaev to the PFL in a trade for Dakota Ditcheva.
The Russian champion picked up on Thomas’ comments recently and responded by mocking him with an image of him being knocked out during his tenure in the UFC.
Despite that, fellow former UFC fighter Brendan Schaub has jumped to the defense of Thomas, agreeing with his comments, suggesting that Ankalaev is ‘hurting the UFC’.
“The UFC business model now would make more money of Dakota than with Magomed,” Schaub said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“A matter of fact, Magomed is actually hurting the UFC, it’s f—– up to say because if he goes out and beats Alex who’s a much bigger star than him, it actually hurts the UFC.
“A pretty girl who is very talented who’s a 500 fighter, we can get more money out of than this guy from Dagestan who’s a beast but isn’t good on the mic, his s— talking is a little dicey, and he’s also so good that the stars you want to be the face of the UFC, he beats. That’s an issue,” he continued to claim.
Ditcheva won’t be in the UFC any time soon despite calls to sign her
Although not only UFC analysts but fans alike are calling for ‘Dangerous’ Ditcheva to be signed to the UFC, it won’t be happening anytime soon.
After picking up another impressive win in July, Ditcheva revealed that she has once again committed her future to the PFL, tying her down for at least another few years.