According to the Brazilian, with the system: Ankalaev's fight for the belt and Fiziev's rematch with Gatzhi

On the night of March 9, the UFC 313 tournament will take place in Las Vegas, in the main event of which Alex Pereira will face Magomed Ankalaev. In the main match of the evening, Justin Gatji will face Rafael Fiziev. Izvestia tells about these and other fights involving our fighters in the USA.

Pereira – Ankalaev

The Brazilian is facing his fourth light heavyweight title defense. Pereira won the title in November 2023, when he knocked out Jiri Prohazka in the second round. Before that, Alex managed to take the middleweight belt and lose it, and in the light heavyweight division, he defeated Jan Blachovich by split decision. Before Ankalaev, Pereira defended the belt against Jamal Hill, Jiri Prokhazka in a rematch and Khalil Rowntree. The fight with Ankalaev will be the most serious test for the Brazilian.

Magomed will try to win the belt of this division for the second time — in December 2022, the duel for the vacant title against Jan Blachovich ended in a draw. After that, a disappointed Dana White did not give both fighters a second chance.

After the unsuccessful fight with Blakhovich, the Russian entered the cage three times. His first fight with Johnny Walker was ruled invalid due to a prohibited knee strike, in the rematch Ankalaev knocked out the Brazilian, and then convinced everyone to give him a title fight thanks to his victory over Alexander Rakic by unanimous decision. Ankalaev's unbeaten streak now stands at 12 fights, excluding his first fight with Walker.

"I'm going to cause Alex a lot of problems in this fight," ESPN MMA quoted Ankalaev as saying. — I don't think Pereira can beat me in the stand. If we had a stand-up contract, I would have handled it easily. But we chose a more confident path, I want to dominate the champion. We will do what we are good at. We can't say how many rounds the fight will last, but I'll be hunting for the finish from the first round."

"I am the champion, Ankalaev is the challenger,— MMA Junkie quotes Pereira as saying. "He talked a lot, but I prefer to stay silent and focus on my work."

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev believes that Magomed's chances of fighting Pereira are still slightly higher.

"I see Ankalaev as a favorite, but not a big one, to be honest," Makhachev told Izvestia. — Because Pereira is a very strong athlete, his amateur career is huge, he went through fire and water, fought in hard battles, and had tremendous experience. I think Ankalaev should not underestimate his fight — everyone knows that he is a drummer. But you should prepare well for this fight.

Gatzhi – Fiziev

Initially, the American was supposed to fight Dan Hooker, but his opponent withdrew due to injury, and Fiziev accepted the fight on short notice. In the last fight, Gatji lost epically to Max Holloway — then the fighters reached the fifth round and were hacked in the last 10 seconds. This led to Holloway's thumping knockout, while Justin lay motionless on the canvas.

The fight with Fiziev will be a rematch — the fighters met in March 2023, and then the American won by a majority decision of the judges. Since then, Rafael had one fight against Mateusz Gamrot, but lost because he broke his leg during the fight. It took Fiziev a long time to heal the injury, but now he is ready to take revenge — not against Gamrot, but against Gatzhi.

"This is my first fight in the month of Ramadan," Fiziev said at a press conference. — I always did everything to fight before or after Ramadan. It is much more important for me to stay close to God this month and do what I have to do in my religion. But sometimes it happens that we can't refuse. Still, these fights require you to be ready to fight at any time sometimes. That's why I'm not fasting right now, because I'm on the road, I'm far from home, I can't even fast, and I have to exercise. I'll miss a week, but then I'll make up for it, and the day after the fight, I plan to fast."

Blades – Kuniev

Curtis Blades has been fighting in the UFC since 2016, and at the time of his debut in the promotion, Rizvan Kuniev's professional record consisted of two wins, two losses and a draw. In recent years, Blades' career has been uneven: he lost to Sergey Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall by knockouts in the first round, but beat Gilton Almeida in the second five minutes.

Kuniev will make his UFC debut — and immediately with a fighter from the top 5. Rizwan got into the promotion through Dana White's challenger series. He was the champion of the Khabib Eagle FC league and competed once in the PFL, where he defeated Renan Ferreira, but the fight was declared invalid because a banned substance was found in the Russian's body. At the same time, only the duel with Ferreira from Kuniev's last five fights ended with a decision from the judges. Rizvan usually finishes his rivals.

Ferreira – Petrosyan

Brazilian Bruno Ferreira will fight for the sixth time in the UFC, before that he won three fights and lost in two. At the same time, Ferreira had already managed to surprise when he knocked out Gregory Rodriguez in the first round. But it turned out much worse with Abus Magomedov and Nursultan Ruziboev: the Russian strangled Bruno in the third round, and the representative of Uzbekistan knocked out the Brazilian in 77 seconds.

Armen Petrosyan, a native of Krasnoyarsk, returns after an unpleasant defeat by Bullet Balls. In October 2024, Sharabutdin knocked out Petrosyan with a double backfist, but Armen himself believes that the fight was stopped early. Petrosyan's current UFC record is 3-3, having lost his previous two fights. Perhaps the fight with Ferreira will be decisive for Armen regarding his career in the UFC.