Dan Hardy believes Alex Pereira failed to pull the trigger in his first fight against Magomed Ankalaev.
Former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight champion Pereira (12-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) was dethroned at 205 pounds by Ankalaev (21-1-1 MMA, 12-1-1 UFC) when the two met at UFC 313 in March. “Poatan” struggled to land his trademark power shots over five rounds against the Russian and ultimately lost by unanimous decision.
Although Ankalaev was unable to take the former GLORY kickboxing champion down despite several attempts, former UFC welterweight and analyst Hardy believes the constant threat of Ankalaev’s wrestling was enough to freeze the Brazilian in his tracks.
"I think maybe (Pereira) had a little bit too much respect for Ankalaev in the last fight," Hardy told Helen Yee. "I also think he wasn't quite sure which hand Ankalaev was going to play. Ankalaev is very, very confident as a striker. His wrestling has always been a backup in his game, and he's never particularly wanted to use it too much. But just the idea of it being there, the threat, it seemed to make Pereira kind of hesitate a little too much.
"Pereira, when he's at that close range, either when you're coming to him – like when (Sean) Strickland fought him, Strickland was walking into his range – or when someone's moving away and he's walking into their range like Jamahal Hill, you feel that pressure of his kind of frame coming at you and people feel like they need to react."
The pair are set to meet again in the main event at UFC 320 on October 4. Hardy is adamant that Pereira needs to be more proactive in order to reclaim the light heavyweight title.
"If I'm Pereira, I would be thinking about getting as close to him as possible, getting in his face, maybe even try and use a bit of Thai clinch just to kind of manage the clinch a bit," Hardy said. "He's going to be better defending takedowns on the front foot as well, right? Better if he's pressuring forward and forcing Ankalaev to shoot under pressure."
