Magomed Ankalaev Takes The Title Off Poatan In A Pretty Boring Main Event
Well that sucked! I think we all knew there was the possibility of a boring main event tonight (due to the weird clash in styles between Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev), but I certainly didn’t think it’d be that boring if it stayed on the feet as long as it did!
I was under the impression either Poatan would knock Ank out early, or Ankalaev would take Poatan down and hold him on the ground for five straight rounds. Instead, we mostly saw two guys mostly just standing and fighting trepidatiously due to the threats each other possess. Poatan wasn’t fighting too aggressively because he was worried about Magomed's takedowns (which he did a good job of defending tonight) and Ank wasn’t pushing forward recklessly because of the power Pereira holds in his hands. So it was a lot of leg kicks, jabs, and clinching. It wasn’t all bad - Ankalaev actually rocked Poatan at the end of the second round….
….but that was definitely the highlight of the fight, and no other moment really got that exciting.
When it came down to the judges I knew it could go either way, and it wound up being an “….and NEW!” which I wasn’t too upset about. That fight was too close to really argue either side too strongly in my mind, and neither guy looked like they fought their heart out or anything.
It’ll be interesting to see how Pereira bounces back from this and what he does next. We’re about to break it all down on the Spinnin Backfist MMA Show, so tune in live....