UFC 320 fight card — Magomed Ankalaev vs. Alex Pereira 2: Five biggest storylines to watch in Las Vegas

A revenge of a unavoidable light heavyweight at the top of the brand on Saturday in a UFC 320 Pay-Per-View event From T-Mobile Arena to Las Vegas.

Magomed Ankalaev made the first defense of his title of 205 pounds in the main event while he welcomed Alex Pereira in an immediate revenge match six months after Ankalaev marked a unanimous decision to take the belt.

The Co-Princhipal event of the UFC 320 is a fight that fans have been wishing for a long time. The UFC Coqs Champion, Merab Dvalishvili, is being a dominant race after beating Sean O’malley (twice) and Umar Nurmagomedov. Dvalishvili can extend his record for the longest sequence of Coq weight victories by pushing his next challenger. Cory Sandhant has long been tabulated as the future champion. After having dropped several times just below an escape, “The Sandman” finally obtains his shot on undisputed gold.

As we get closer to the fights this weekend, let’s take a closer look at the biggest scenarios.

1. An Alex Pereira refocused and in good health is a very, very dangerous man

Despite the shock of seeing him the 12 attempts to withdraw ankalaev in their title of UFC 313 title, the loss of decision of Pereira was a resolutely disappointing performance. No more constant threat of the KO of the herd of Brazilian hunt while the most technical ankalaev kept it on the rear foot throughout the regular pressure. After the fight, the UFC analyst Joe Rogan publicly published that Pereira had fought both a broken hand and a fight with the Norovirus, to which the proud Pereira has never confirmed or apologizes. Fighting Butt and taking big risks with his matchmaking have become the Pereira business card, including a crazy 175 -day section in 2024 in which he made three title defenses despite the fight against a certain number of physical illnesses. But when Pereira said to CBS Sports last week He was only 40% of him in Ankalaev’s fight And was shocked, he even arrived at the octagon given everything he endured during the training camp, it could be worthwhile to speak.

The coach of Pereira, the former UFC champion, Glover Teixeira, mentioned on “UFC Countdown” that the training camp of the UFC 320 was very different from previous fights, when Pereira has often traveled throughout the construction to his title fights to make public appearances. This time, they concentrated exclusively on the reconstruction of the Pereira essence tank at 38 years old and the “poatan” still stoic appeared unusually agitated this time each time an ankalaev is mentioned, especially during a run-in of him of the fear of the UFC. An injury and a bad Pereira could have been neutralized at their first meeting, but the fight was still close to the dashboards while Pereira rallied in turn 5 to lose closely by a score of 48-47 on two of the three dashboards of the three judges. Expect that a hungry pereira is much more aggressive in their revenge match, which is scary to consider.

2. Pereira is not the only one who can improve its performance in March

Although he won the title in an intelligent performance that saw the 20-1-1 Ankalaev extend his undefeated sequence at 14 fights since he lost his debut in UFC in 2018, the native of Dagrestan, in Russia, was not too exciting or commanding. This is probably the main reason why UFC matchmakers have chosen to go in the direction of an immediate revenge match. The good news for Ankalaev is that he recognized his shortcomings during a place on “Countdown of the UFC”, where the 33 -year -old man admitted that he should have followed with more offense when he had obviously injured and / or saved. Passivity against elite competition was sometimes a problem for Ankalaev, who predicted that he will finish Pereira in the revenge match. Given the intensity in Pereira’s eyes this week, he may have to do it to win.

3. Merab Dvalishvili enters the most difficult style challenge of his title

Classified in the top five books for book and on a sequence of crazy forest victories since the loss of its first two UFC fights, Dvalishvili, 34, continues to be an almost unstoppable force at 135 pounds. A victory on Saturday would be the native of Georgia only the eighth UFC champion in any division to make three defenses in reigning in the same calendar year (and he has already declared his hope of adding a record of fourth in December). However, even with its recent domination and its incredible implacable cardio displays, Dvalishvili should have their hands full with long and clumsy sandhage. There is no MMA competence that the well -balanced sandman does not have and its constant movement and its creative strike attacks have the potential to be problematic for the champion. Sandhant also has a strong petrol reservoir and has resisted the storm of disappointment in recent years after losing several close combat against the best contenders who would have raised it in a title shot. At 33, this could be the last shot from Sandhant in Glory and the experience he brings will be the key as he seeks to slow Dvalishvili and transform the fight into a chess match.

4. A slugfest is expected while the five best light heavy goods vehicles are looking for the return of the title

Look your safety belts! Nothing less than fireworks are expected when the former 205 pound champion Jiri Nearly welcomes the former title challenger Khalil Routree Jr. In a battle of exciting sluggers with legitimate implications on the title in play. Yes, it is true that the winner could finally take a rear seat in Carlos Ulberg, the New Zealand competitor who Improved his sequence of victories to nine last Saturday when he knocked training two-time title Challenger Dominick Reyes out in Round 1. Ulberg is even more like the call Should pereira regain the title, Mostly Becuse he knocked out Both Procorda and Runtree in His Last Two Victories In 2024. But with the combination of Shallow Contender Pool and Rampant Parity at Light Heavyweight, The Winner of Nextzka-Retree Will Be in the Driver’s Seat for a Huge Fight, Especially Considering, the two have momentum after each stop victory marked against former champion Jamahal Hill earlier this year. At 35, Roundree’s resurgence in a threat of legitimate title was fun to watch. But nobody brings pleasure as well as next time, which, apart from two defeats for Ko against Pereira, finished his five UFC victories and has not taken the distance in a professional fight since 2016.

5. Patchy Mix returns quietly to the first preliminaries after the demoralizing beginnings

Only three months ago, Mix, a 32-year-old free agent and former Bellator MMA champion brought his 20-1 record in the UFC for a first fight against Mario Bautista who might have raised him to an immediate title shot he had won. Unfortunately for mix, he was brutally beaten in a unilateral decision -making that saw his stock take a crazy blow. Although he entered the UFC freshly out of the consecutive victories against James Gallagher, Kyoji Horiguchi, Magomed Magomedov (twice), Raufeon Stots and Sergio Pettis, suddenly find themselves buried on the first preliminaries on Saturday against a Jakub champion. Curiously, the same thing recently occurred to the significant other of mix, Tatiana Suarez, which went from a loss of brutal straw title to Zhang Weili during the co-princhipal event of the UFC 312 in February to return from the radar on the prelime of Noche UFC in September. Although it is probably prematurely to say that the work of mix is ​​at stake, it undoubtedly needs a huge rebound performance in accordance with the capacities he has shown in his pre-Abc race.