Magomed Ankalaev has already had enough of Alex Pereira.
Ankalaev (21-1-1 MMA, 12-1-1 UFC) is set to make the first defense of his light heavyweight title against Pereira (12-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) — the man he defeated to claim the belt at UFC 313 in March — when they clash in the main event of UFC 320 next week.
Both fighters arrived in Las Vegas earlier this week ahead of their October 4 showdown at T-Mobile Arena, and tensions have been running high ever since.
Pereira accused Ankalaev of avoiding him when the two nearly crossed paths at the UFC Performance Institute, before going on to brand the Dagestani as “a sh*tty champion.”
"Honestly, up until recently, I had respect for him as a fighter and as a person," Ankalaev told the media through an interpreter on Thursday. "I no longer respect him because, OK, trash talk is something to hype up the fight, maybe you say something funny, or to be salty, but when you lie to people and say, 'I saw him, and he hid,' and stuff like that he recently said, I don't respect people like that. Why would you lie about something that never happened?"
Ankalaev also revealed that the pair finally came face to face, where he confronted “Poatan” about his trash talk.
"The problem here is that he was talking all this crap just a few days ago, and then today I saw him – it was just me and my coach and him and his whole team – I approached him and I said, 'Hey, guys. You were lying that I was hiding and stuff. I'm right here right now. What are you going to do?," Ankalaev said. "He responded by saying, 'Oh this girl said that, this guy that said that,' and he starting making stuff up on the spot.
"I have no problem, but say he gets close to me next week and decides to get too close to me, of course, I'm going to defend myself. Other than that, we'll see everything in the cage."
