It took years for Magomed Ankalaev to climb to the top of the light heavyweight mountain, and less than 90 seconds for his reign to end. There\u2019s no telling how long it will take him to make it back, but he takes his first steps to another championship opportunity at UFC Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s main event features Ankalaev in his first fight since a brutal knockout loss to rival Alex Pereira at UFC 320 this past October. Ankalaev was originally set to face Khalil Rountree Jr., but with Rountree forced to withdraw, in steps up-and-coming contender Bogdan Guskov. This is a change of plans for Guskov as well as he was lined up to rematch Jan Blachowicz at UFC Belgrade next week, only for the matchmakers to call upon him to save the UFC Abu Dhabi headliner.<\/p>\n
For one reason or another, Ankalaev has seemingly never been a favorite of the UFC\u2019s shot-callers as it took a seven-year unbeaten streak for him to earn his first title shot; now, he needs to stifle Guskov just to keep his spot in line. On the other side, Guskov is undefeated in his past five fights and suddenly finds himself with an opportunity to jump into the top 5 of the rankings.<\/p>\n
Will it be status quo or a new face in the title picture by the end of the weekend?<\/p>\n
Where: Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi<\/p>\n
When: Saturday, July 25. The seven-fight preliminary card begins at 9 a.m. ET, followed by a six-fight main card at 12 p.m. ET. The entire event streams live on Paramount+.<\/p>\n
(Numbers in parentheses indicate standing in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings<\/a> and MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings<\/a>)<\/p>\n Magomed Ankalaev (3, P4P-17) vs. Bogdan Guskov (12)<\/p>\n Magomed Ankalaev has to find a way to control the action against a wild card of an opponent.<\/p>\n Assuming Bogdan Guskov fights like a man with nothing to lose, this is a dangerous matchup for Ankalaev. Even if you consider Ankalaev to be levels above Guskov in terms of technique, there\u2019s no questioning Guskov\u2019s power and if he just marches in chucking, he has a better than good chance of catching Ankalaev and putting him down. Boom, new contender.<\/p>\n Fortunately for Ankalaev, he\u2019s an expert at defusing his opponents\u2019 offense, which I know sounds laughable considering the last time we saw him he was getting sparked in under 90 seconds by Alex Pereira. But Guskov isn\u2019t \u201cPoatan\u201d and I buy the excuse that Ankalaev at less than 100 percent for that rematch (because that\u2019s the best way to explain why he looked so awful). The real Ankalaev has excellent footwork and usually knows how to keep his chin off of the center line. It will take a big mistake for Guskov to clip him.<\/p>\n When Ankalaev has an opponent eager to come forward, that\u2019s when he has a chance to show off his own finishing ability, and I like him to frustrate Guskov for two rounds before putting him down with strikes in the third.<\/p>\n Steve Erceg (14) vs. Ramazan Temirov<\/p>\n As far as gatekeepers go, Steve Erceg is one of the best, and he has a hungry would-be contender knocking at the door in Ramazan Temirov.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t quite know what we have yet with the Temirov, a talented 29-year-old from Uzbekistan who competes for the first time in over 500 days after failing a drug test and receiving a one-year suspension in 2025.<\/a> He likes to hunt for the knockout early, but showed he can win a striking battle over three rounds as well with an impressive win against Charles Johnson. How hot will he come out of the gates against Erceg?<\/p>\n Erceg is as tough as they come, but we\u2019ve seen him go down early once against Kai Kara-France. He tends to start slow, collect data, and then outwork and outthink his opponents. That strategy could certainly pay off against Temirov should Erceg survive the opening round.<\/p>\n I actually think Erceg will avoid the stoppage, but I still like Temirov\u2019s aggression to pay off in the long run. He wins on points and more importantly, we learn more about whether Temirov can actually be a future contender at 125 pounds.<\/p>\n Islam Dulatov vs. Wellington Turman<\/p>\n We all know what this matchup is.<\/p>\n