MMA analyst Dan Hardy has questioned Alex Pereira\u2019s strategy in his first fight against Magomed Ankalaev.<\/p>\n
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 \u2018Poatan\u2019 in a performance that didn\u2019t show the best that the Brazilian had to offer.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Alex Pereira: \u201cThe story will be over\u201d with Magomed Ankalaev post-UFC 320<\/a><\/p>\n Ahead of the rematch, there are many different points of view regarding how it\u2019s 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\u2019s set up for Ankalaev to potentially get the finish<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a recent interview, the aforementioned Dan Hardy gave his thoughts on how Pereira vs Ankalaev 1 went down.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hardy\u2019s view on Pereira vs Ankalaev<\/p>\n \u201cI think maybe he had a little bit too much respect for Ankalaev in the last fight,\u201d Hardy told Helen Yee of Pereira. \u201cI also think he wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cPereira, when he\u2019s at that close range, either when you\u2019re coming to him \u2013 like when (Sean) Strickland fought him, Strickland was walking into his range \u2013 or when someone\u2019s moving away and he\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m 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,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be better defending takedowns on the front foot as well, right? Better if he\u2019s pressuring forward and forcing Ankalaev to shoot under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n