MMA analyst Dan Hardy has questioned Alex Pereira’s strategy in his first fight against Magomed Ankalaev.

In the main event of UFC 320, Alex Pereira will challenge Magomed Ankalaev for the UFC light heavyweight championship. It comes in the wake of their first meeting, in which Ankaalev was able to take the belt away from ‘Poatan’ in a performance that didn’t show the best that the Brazilian had to offer.

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Ahead of the rematch, there are many different points of view regarding how it’s going to play out. Some believe Pereira is going to put forward an even better display than most can imagine, whereas others feel like it’s set up for Ankalaev to potentially get the finish.

In a recent interview, the aforementioned Dan Hardy gave his thoughts on how Pereira vs Ankalaev 1 went down.

Hardy’s view on Pereira vs Ankalaev

“I think maybe he had a little bit too much respect for Ankalaev in the last fight,” Hardy told Helen Yee of Pereira. “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.

“Pereira, when he’s at that close range, either when you’re coming to him – like when (Sean) Strickland fought him, Strickland was walking into his range – or when someone’s moving away and he’s walking into their range like Jamahal Hill, you feel that pressure of his kind of frame coming at you and people feel like they need to react.”

“If I’m Pereira, I would be thinking about getting as close to him as possible, getting in his face, maybe even try and use a bit of Thai clinch just to kind of manage the clinch a bit,” Hardy said. “He’s going to be better defending takedowns on the front foot as well, right? Better if he’s pressuring forward and forcing Ankalaev to shoot under pressure.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie