"He better be training how to wrestle" - Fans react to Alex Pereira’s new sparring clip ahead of his fight with Magomed Ankalaev

Alex Pereira recently released new training footage ahead of his rematch against Magomed Ankalaev. The footage shows Pereira aggressively working the mitts with Plinio Cruz.

Fans are impressed with his sharpness, but immediately shifted focus to the wrestling gap against Ankalaev. During their first encounter at UFC 313 in March 2025, Pereira managed to defend all 12 of Ankalaev’s takedown attempts. However, Ankalaev controlled significant moments against the cage with the threat of wrestling entries and outstruck Pereira over the course of the fight.

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Several fans took to X to react to the post, with one fan writing:

"He better be training how to wrestle or how to defend against it, if he pretends to have a chance in the rematch."

Meanwhile, other fans wrote:

"He looks to be in the best shape I've seen him in since he was at 185. Probably due to all the strength and conditioning he's been doing." "The takedown threat is very real, even if Ank isn't a true elite grappler, he's a more experienced grappler than Alex.. In their previous fight it had Alex very hesitant and he lost more so than he was beaten. I'm curious to see if things go differently this time!" "Looks like he's taking an aggressive approach with the consecutive punches. Someone is definitely getting ko'd." "Looks the same [to be honest]. Same striking abilities as always. Where [is] the fence grappling training or at least some defensive work for it."

Check out some of the fan reactions below:

Fans react to Alex Pereira's new training footage. [Screenshots courtesy: @ChampRDS on X]

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Dan Hardy claims Alex Pereira showed too much respect for Magomed Ankalaev in first fight

Alex Pereira struggled to fully impose his striking in his first fight against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313. Despite defending all 12 takedown attempts, Pereira appeared hesitant and cautious.

Former UFC fighter Dan Hardy believes that the threat of Ankalaev’s wrestling made Pereira second-guess his approach and slowed his usual aggression. Speaking in an interview with Helen Yee, Hardy said:

"I think maybe he had a little bit too much respect for Ankalaev in the last fight. 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."

Edited by Abhishek Nambiar