New champ Magomed Ankalaev gripes with ‘fraud’ Jiri Prochazka for calling a last dance with Alex Pereira

Dagestani Magomed Ankalaev joined the elite club when he captured the UFC 205-pound championship gold at UFC 313. Ankalaev shut down Alex Pereira‘s wildly infamous offense and outworked him in the PPV headliner at the T-Mobile Arena. Now, he has the attention of light heavyweight contender Jiri Prochazka.

Despite a strong tactical opening round, Pereira could not do much later. He lost a lopsided game and is arguably not at his peak. Some put an asterisk on Magomed Ankalaev’s win. For example, KC vet and NFL Super Bowl fame Gehrig Dieter caught fire for his online rant that grapplers are ruining MMA. However, Jiri Prochazka defended his pressure output and win, subtly amping up a shot next.

A natural course, given that, not 24 hours ago, Jiri “BJP” Prochazka called dibs on title contention against whoever won at the PPV event headliner. Alex Pereira’s reign of terror started with him. He finished Prochazka at UFC 295 to get hold of the vacant UFC 205-pound belt. He failed another bid at UFC 303 and has been angsty to get to it. However, Ankalaev didn’t take well to him calling for a title crack or a last dance in a trilogy against “Poatan.”

❗️ Jiri Prochazka defends Magomed Ankalaev’s performance and congratulates him on his title win

Ankalaev responds by calling him a “fraud” who “needs to go win some fights” pic.twitter.com/CEyev2VQ2U

— ACD MMA (@acdmma_) March 9, 2025

This guy is a terrible fighter

— Magomed Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM) March 9, 2025

Only Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Kamaru Usman, and Islam Makhachev have put up double-digit streaks of 14 or more. Ankalaev trails on those lines and joined the likes of Belal Muhammad and Merab Dvalishvili to put on a massive body of work before the title win. Hence, he wants a similar output from Jiri Prochazka before putting his name in the hat. UFC CEO/headman Dana White‘s admission of an Ankalaev-Pereira title rematch next might also be a blunder for Samurai’s plans.

Can Jiri Prochazka be next? Not according to Dana White’s hints

Jiri Prochazka might audaciously do a call-up, but there’s no straight guarantee he’s next for the title. UFC’s Samurai did fan the flames on the ground that Ankalaev’s tactile pressure was similar to how he fights. Despite his low-hand awkwardness and explosive output, Prochazka recently beat out Jamahal Hill via third-round TKO (strikes) in January.

Khalil Rountree Jr. was a recent title challenger and stiff test to pass en route to gold. But he now faces Hill in a Kansas City Fight Night headliner. So now, Prochazka would be looking through the list for someone to push him to be the top seed for gold. Enter White with a counteroffer.

During the UFC 313 PPV post-event conference interviews, MMA journo John Morgan asked if an Alex Pereira vs. Ankalaev 2 rematch is a possibility. It’s a dominant strain of thought, given how close the match was and the magnitude of a star Pereira is. Dana White affirmed it could be so with a simple “probably.”

Some fans took to the chat boards later to complain about the judges’ scoring (49-46, 48-47, 48-47). However, the bossman billed the right man won, and it’d be ultimately up to him who he wants to fight. But he hinted Pereira is obviously a big enough name to veer that way immediately. Magomed Ankalaev also put some stock into rematch talks in a post-fight conversation with AG.Fight. Meanwhile, Prochazka has a mixed bag of win-lose ratios in his last few to douse a big enough momentum.

Related: Alex Pereira lost but joined special group with Jon Jones and Conor McGregor at UFC 313

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