Jamahal Hill breaks down Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313

Jamahal Hill predicts a brand new mild heavyweight champion might be topped at UFC 313.

Alex Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) defends his title towards Magomed Ankalaev (20-1-1 MMA, 11-1-1 UFC) in Saturday’s major occasion at T-Cell Area in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews/Disney+, ESPN+).

After going back-and-forth with Ankalaev on social media, Hill admits he doesn’t like him however respects him as a fighter. Most pundits have urged Ankalaev to wrestle, however Hill additionally sees his placing model posing issues for Pereira.

“Magomed’s placing is significantly being slept on right here,” Hill stated on his YouTube channel. “I don’t imagine that Pereira sits again and needs to battle out of the pocket. He desires to place the stress on him and land good, exhausting pictures on the surface. The issue with that’s? Magomed is a counter striker. When you take a look at his previous couple of fights, he counters.

“He waits so that you can throw, to overexert your self, and even off of feints, when you feint and it places your toes within the incorrect spot, he’s countering you. He counters with combos. They’re quick, and he mixes up his punches. So, he has quite a lot of strikes accessible at his disposal. There’s the truth that he’s a southpaw.”

Aggression is essential?

Whereas Hill thinks Pereira now has extra expertise preventing southpaws, it did take him some time to determine Khalil Rountree earlier than ultimately stopping him in Round 4 at UFC 307. He advises “Poatan” to be aggressive.

“For Pereira, the low kicks are there,” Hill stated. “He’s bought good kicks throughout. He must produce these in quantity. … Alex goes to have produce numerous quantity on this battle to offer Magomed issues. He can’t simply big-shot him. He’s going to need to upset him with quantity, after which these energy pictures he’s going to land are going to have to return as counters.

“He’s bought to attract him out of his gap, draw him out of his shell, after which hit him with a giant counter. These low kicks, that physique jab that he throws might be cash. I imagine he ought to work these till he’s in a position to attract Magomed out, then he’ll discover some alternatives to land these large pictures and that energy. Knees to the physique might be there, perhaps just a little little bit of clinch work for at any time when they do get into perhaps some grappling exchanges.”

Hill’s prediction for Pereira vs. Ankalaev

Finally, Hill picked Ankalaev to dethrone his former foe.

“I’m going to go along with Magomed. I really feel he has extra instruments to win,” Hill stated. “Clearly Alex has that one hit surprise. If he catches you, he can put you away, however I imagine Magomed additionally has that. He has the pace, the persistence to counter.

“He’s been on this place earlier than. He already let the title slip out of his palms as soon as earlier than, and I imagine he’ll be much more centered, locked in for this, and in the end has extra methods to win.”

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 313.