Alexander Volkanovski finds it onerous to guess towards Alex Pereira at UFC 313.
Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) defends his gentle heavyweight title towards Magomed Ankalaev (20-1-1 MMA, 11-1-1 UFC) in Saturday’s fundamental occasion at T-Cell Area in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews/Disney+, ESPN+).
Volkanovski thinks Pereira’s floor recreation will maintain up, and that his numerous hanging will pose issues for Ankalaev.
“He’s very harmful as a result of he places the stress on and he can flick stuff out untelegraphed and set issues up offensively. After which on the counter, (he’s) very, very, excellent on the counter,” Volkanovski stated of Pereira on his YouTube channel. “(It’s a) onerous, onerous, onerous combat for Ankalaev to remain on the ft. He’s going to wish to take it down, he’ll try to take it down, he may get takedowns. 5 rounds of them? Does beating up the leg just a little bit, does Pereira simply finally discover it? I feel so. I feel he’s going to be technically sound sufficient to not get submitted on the bottom and that combat continues.
“And even when he does maintain him, as a result of he’s going to have good management, I’m certain Ankalaev has nice grappling, most likely actually good with management, however I feel it’s going to be extra management primarily based. So I don’t see him having the ability to submit Pereira except Pereira offers one thing up in his course of to increase, which I’m certain he’s going to be working with Glover Teixeira. He’s going to be fairly sound there and make the precise choices. He’s fairly intelligent and sturdy and composed, so it’s going to be onerous for Magomed to capitalize on alternatives that could be there on the bottom.”
Volkanovski in the end predicted a knockout win for Pereira, who’s a slight favourite on just a few betting websites, with others sportsbooks having the percentages lifeless even.
“I’m going to go together with the favourite on this one: Alex Pereira, KO,” Volkanovski stated. “I’m going to go together with KO/TKO. I feel with him, it’s at all times a fairly protected guess – particularly when he’s the favourite. I don’t suppose it’s going to be early rounds. Might undoubtedly do it immediately. I’m pondering perhaps second- or third-round TKO.”
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