Over the weekend, UFC 313 took place inside T-Mobile Arena in Enterprise, NV. It was the third pay-per-view event of the year from MMA’s top promotion. UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier, (22-3, 1 NC MMA, 11-3, 1 NC UFC) the former UFC Light Heavyweight and UFC Heavyweight Champion, served alongside Joe Rogan as the analyst on the broadcast.
Among the night’s itinerary this past Saturday was the fight for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in the main event of the evening pitting now-former champion Alex Pereira (12-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) with then-No. 1 contender Magomed Ankalaev (21-1-1, 1 NC MMA, 12-1-1, 1 NC UFC.) Upon Pereira scoring regularly with kicks to the leg in round one, Ankalaev turned up the volume down the stretch to score a unanimous decision on the cards.
In so doing, Magomed Ankalaev is the 18th different man, counting interim title reigns, to hold the 205-lb strap since the weight class’ title was inaugurated in December of 1997 by Frank Shamrock in UFC Japan. On Monday, the UFC 313 main event was a topic of discussion on Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen’s Good Guy/ Bad Guy podcast.
Daniel Cormier Believes Pereira’s Championship Fight Defeat a Blessing in Disguise
Prior to UFC 313 on March 8 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the rumor mill was circulating as to whether or not Alex Pereira would move up to 265 to square off against Jon Jones. With the result of Saturday night’s fight, those rumors are now effectively dead.
Daniel Cormier mentioned that he believes it’s best that “Poatan” stay put at light heavyweight.
“When you would tell me that [Alex] Pereira losing would almost encourage him to go up [to heavyweight], I believed it,” Daniel Cormier began. “When we watched [on] Saturday, and watched him and Ankalev fight, it gives me the idea that I think he’s kind of maxed out the weight he can go up. I don’t think he’s strong enough to deal with anyone bigger, because the amount of pressure that Ankalev was able to generate without the danger coming back at him like we expected, those heavyweights kind of just walk right through what he was throwing at him.”
Daniel Cormier’s Thoughts on UFC 313 Main Event Continued
“DC” didn’t stop there when it came to this past weekend’s main event.
“The fight Saturday, and I know there’s been a lot of reactions, a lot of talk about what happened,” Daniel Cormier opined, “the fight Saturday, to me, was surprising in a sense that one: we learned that Pereira’s a much better takedown defense than we thought. He understands wrestling better than we thought, or Ankalev can’t score takedowns as good as we thought. It’s one of the two, and we also learned one more thing: Jamahal Hill was right.”
Jamahal Hill Posts Online After UFC 313 Main Event
In the immediate aftermath of UFC 313 early Sunday, Jamahal Hill took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to air his thoughts on the main event of the evening.
“LMAO y’all are pathetic,” Hill posted on the social-networking platform. “I didn’t care who won. I called the fight as I saw [it] and talk got mad and [you] clearly don’t know [expletive deleted] about fighting.”
Chael Sonnen Concurs with Daniel Cormier’s Remarks
During the Monday podcast, Sonnen, nicknamed “The American Gangster” was in lockstep with what Daniel Cormier mentioned.
“It wasn’t just Jamahal that said [Ankalaev] would beat [Pereira] in the striking,” Sonnen commented. “Ankalaev told us that he’d beat him in the striking. Hold on: Is Ankalev a man of his word because he did what he said what he was going to do? But he tried to take him down. He wanted to take him down. Yes, I do agree with what you said. I love that term, threat of the takedown. It did change Pereira.”
Final Thoughts
Do you agree with what Daniel Cormier said on his and Chael Sonnen’s podcast this week? Let us know in the comments.
