Alex Pereira lacks motivation for Magomed Ankalaev rematch, claims surging light heavyweight contender: "He’s too rich"

Zhang Mingyang recently shared his thoughts on the upcoming Magomed Ankalaev vs. Alex Pereira title rematch. The Chinese fighter backed Ankalaev to get the job done again and criticized Pereira for lacking the drive required to beat the reigning light heavyweight champion.

Ankalaev and Pereira will throw down at UFC 320 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in October. In their previous encounter at UFC 313 in March, Ankalaev defeated Pereira via unanimous decision and claimed the light heavyweight throne.

Meanwhile, Mingyang is hoping to get closer to title contention with a win over Johnny Walker at UFC Shanghai this weekend. In an interview with MMA Fighting ahead of his upcoming bout, Mingyang shared his preview of the Ankalaev-Pereira rematch via a translator and said:

"I think Ankalaev can defend his title because I think Alex Pereira is not as motivated as before. I mean, if we can get the old Pereira back, he’s still the, let’s say, better striker than Ankalaev. But for now, if he still fights like the way like he fought last fight, I think Ankalaev can still win this fight [again]."

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He continued:

Because he has earned too much money,” Zhang explained. “He’s too rich. I think no matter who you are as a fighter, or as a human being, if you are too rich, you just kind of lack motivation [compared to] when you are young, when you are poor, when you are hungry."

Magomed Ankalaev's manager predicts Alex Pereira rematch at UFC 320

Last month, Magomed Ankalaev's manager, Ali Abdelaziz, shared his thoughts on the Alex Pereira rematch. Abdelaziz boldly claimed that Ankalaev would hurt Pereira worse than he did in their first encounter.

In an appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Abdelaziz backed his client to beat Pereira for a second time and said:

"I’m going to tell you something, if they fight again, and they will fight again, probably in October, it’s going to be worse for Alex... Ankalaev, he can wrestle, he can grapple, and he can strike. Actually, I think Ankalaev is more of a striker than a grappler. We [saw] him, he hurt [Pereira] in the fight. Alex didn’t hurt him."

He continued:

"I think Ankalaev right now is going to be very dangerous. And remember, Alex is 38 years old. He travels all over the place. He has a great coach. I like his coach a lot. I think he’s a very good guy, but I think this is Ankalaev’s time. It should have been Ankalaev’s time. Hunter Campbell, Mick Maynard all the UFC, they was all sandbagging him, and now they know what’s coming. They were praying for [Ankalaev] to lose.”

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Edited by Nishant Zende.