Is UFC protecting ‘golden goose’ Alex Pereira?

Daniel Cormier is stunned that Magomed Ankalaev didn’t get a UFC mild heavyweight title shot.

As a substitute, Anakalev (19-1-1 MMA, 10-1-1 UFC) drew Aleksandar Rakic (14-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) on Oct. 26 at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi. That leaves mild heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) with out an opponent, and Cormier wonders if reserving Ankalaev in opposition to another person was performed on objective – contemplating that “Poatan” has come up huge for the promotion by saving UFC 300 and UFC 303 on quick discover this yr.

“I don’t know why Pereira will not be preventing Ankalaev proper now,” Cormier stated on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “I don’t know why that’s not occurring. What I do like is that now Ankalaev has to go one other check as a result of what the UFC is sort of saying right here is, We’ve bought this star, we all know that this man right here might be an actual potential problem for that star, they are going to combat ultimately, however they are going to combat when we have now no different choice.’ I prefer it.”

Cormier defined that Pereira’s previous few opponents have been harmful strikers who don’t have the flexibility to combine it up like Ankalaev can.

“I don’t suppose you run the danger but,” Cormier stated. “I’m not saying Pereira can’t combat or beat Ankalaev. I simply really feel like it’s a very, very tough matchup, presumably the toughest matchup for him in the whole mild heavyweight division. So I feel he has to attend, otherwise you get him in there with another person proper now that’s a striker as a result of all these strikers he’s simply knocking out left and proper, and each time he does that his star simply shines brighter.

“So possibly that’s what occurs for Alex Pereira, however I’m very not often stunned when fights get introduced. However I bear in mind sitting in Manchester and so they stated UFC 308, and once I noticed Rakic taking over Ankalaev, my jaw dropped. I used to be like, ‘They really did it.’ Like generally you’ve bought to guard that golden goose a bit of bit, and that’s sort of what it seems like.”

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