Without belts: what do Anklaev's defeat and Nurmagomedov's victory mean?

Brazilian fighter Alex Pereira defeated Russian Magomed Ankalaev in a fight for the light heavyweight title at the UFC 320 tournament in Las Vegas. The fight ended in the first round, with Pereira winning by technical knockout. The fight lasted only 80 seconds. In March 2025, Ankalaev defeated Pereira in a championship fight at UFC 313 by unanimous decision. Their third fight may take place in 2026. The victory this weekend was won by Usman Nurmagomedov, who became the new PFL champion.

Believe the words

The first fight between Magomed Ankalaev and Alex Pereira, which took place in March, lasted all five rounds. Magomed won by unanimous decision, he won quite confidently, while there were a minimum of sharp moments in that fight.

The rematch turned out to be as short as possible. The sharp moments started from the very first seconds, and it was not Ankalaev who won, but Pereira.

The Brazilian immediately went ahead. And if Ankalaev dodged the first right kick, then the second one flew right at the target. Magomed fought back with front kicks, but Pereira did not slow down and soon shocked the Russian fighter with a hard right side kick. Interestingly, Alex, known for his killer left hook, attacked primarily with his right in this fight. The Brazilian hit his temple, Magomed went down, tried to grab his opponent's leg, but he took a dominant position from above and began to actively beat with his elbows. As a result, referee Herb Dean stopped the fight.

Pereira's victory by technical knockout. The victory is of exceptional value, considering that Ankalaev has not lost in the UFC for 13 fights (and in general, he lost in the UFC only once, in his debut, in the spring of 2018).

"Revenge?" It's not a good thing, it poisons you," Pereira said in an octagon interview. — I told everyone that I was out of shape last time, everyone didn't believe these words. Now you've seen the real Alex. I was totally fine.

"This is a reminder that rematches can be very different from the first fight," former UFC champion Peter Yan wrote on his social media.

It is specified that the Russian fighter was not seriously injured. The third match between Ankalaev and Pereira may be held in 2026, TASS reports, citing a representative of the Russian.

— The third fight is possible in 2026. We need a break now," the 33—year-old fighter's team said.

Considering that Islam Makhachev left the lightweight division, Russia no longer has any UFC championship belts. But it may appear in November — Makhachev will fight Jack Della Maddalena for the welterweight championship.

Only 27

Usman Nurmagomedov defeated Paul Hughes by unanimous decision to become the new PFL lightweight champion. The rematch turned out to be as close as the first fight, although not all the judges thought so — one rolled out an incredible 50-45, the other also counted a landslide victory of 49-46, and only the third was close to reality — 48-47.

The episode in the fourth round also confused everyone, when the referee did not deduct a point from Usman for the third consecutive kick to the groin. If eliminated, the round would have become a draw — it still wouldn't have given Hughes a win or a draw, but it could have greatly affected the mood of the fighters.

"First of all, I want to thank Hughes," said former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. — It was because of him that we chased Usman for eight months. The last fight was tough, but this time we showed that we have improved. And today we proved that Usman has a lot to grow, this is not the limit. He is only 27 years old. It will reach its peak in five to six years. Imagine how cool he would be then. This is just the beginning.

What did Nurmagomedov do better in the rematch than in the first fight? He had a better percentage of successful transfers. He immediately started going behind my back, rather than trying to plant me off my feet. In the first fight, Hughes stood very well with his left foot, Usman missed several passes there, in the fifth round he went behind his back and this time used the same entrance. Usman fails too quickly and deftly, that's why he takes his back so well. The number of transfers itself did not grow much — 6 against 5 in the first fight (but the control time in the stalls increased. In the first fight, a significant amount of control was in the clinch).

Usman was also able to create an episode with dominance in the stalls. In the first round, he sat firmly behind his back and worked there for 1 minute and 17 seconds, tucking his legs in, striking and going for a choke. In the first fight, the fighter never had such dominance in the stalls, he could not tuck his legs, hit his head with his hands and threaten to go to the reception. He had a guard position in the fourth round, in the first fight, he landed some punches, but the guard didn't go through, he didn't do any damage, and it wasn't as confident a job as it was in the first round today. Usman has made progress in working from the back, but so far it is still insignificant. He has excellent passes in terms of speed and timing, he moves very quickly and technically, but there is still a lot of work to be done on the positional ground.

It is very important that Usman carried out a successful takedown in each round, leveling up the lost segments or creating an advantage. In the first fight, he couldn't move his opponent for the first two rounds. Our fighter also refused Thai neck grabs and expensive clinches. In a previous meeting, Usman often tried to dampen Hughes' pressure by taking him in a Thai headlock, trying to bend him, beat his knees, and knit. Hughes landed a lot of punches on the body from these grapples, these grapples exhausted Usman, and in the later rounds the opponent easily uncoupled them and smashed them from close range. So he almost put Nurmagomedov down at the very end of the fifth round.

Usman was better prepared functionally, but this was also largely because he changed his manner — he gave up a lot of kicks, missed fewer body shots and did not waste his strength on bending and knitting in the clinch. He tried to break the pressure with his punches to the head, going on the offensive, or with takedowns behind his back. In any case, Usman slowed down anyway, in the last round and a half he hardly used his legs and got lost in monotonous work. He is most dangerous when he mixes his hands with his feet and wrestling, not just boxing.