This is not the exact equivalent, but Chuck Liddell was still a UFC rock star when he intervened to fight Rashad Evans at the UFC 88. I remember Atlanta's tension when he went around Evans through the first round, ready to unclog the right hand that would bring the Philips arena to his feet. In the second round, while this atmosphere improved and Liddell has tracked down – a little inclusive, retrospectively – Evans let fly his own right hand which dropped Liddell as if he had been shot.
There was a dropout and a roar, followed by amazed calm while everyone was dealing with what just happened. Liddell was out. Rock was dead.
Alex Pereira was not knocked out by Magomed Ankalaev on Saturday evening at UFC 313, but there was a Sensation of a string in dashboards As they were read. An unanimous decision in favor of Ankalaev. SO It is How it ends. Indefinable veal kicks, obstinate resistance to withdrawals and a pistol left by the case. Left to the Gavels of all things. Rock stars are supposed to go out with a blow, right? The CEO of the UFC, Dana White, seemed to have had a bad oyster when he wrapped the belt around the size of Ankalaev.
This is because if Pereira was rock and roll, Ankalaev is a choir on the hill of Hymns Amish. The marketing team is Go have a task There at the UFC headquarters.
This is what brought together the crowd in Las Vegas and Anyone who has really been able to order the fight at ESPN + So disappointed. Pereira carried more than massive power in his hands for his defense of the title against the damage fighter. He presented the plans for some wild parts to come. There was a transition to the heavyweight, which would involve a fight with Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall. There was potential in the boxing ring, where he had the eye of Oleksandr Usyk. There was more sham with a capital C, shouting on its targets by pulling these imaginary arrows.
Now there is Only the revenge match with Ankalaev.
This fight will be a Mulligan for the largest active star in the UFC, rather than an essential case. At 37, Pereira has not all the time in the world. Worse, the imagination of the combat game is not as vast as we would like to believe. If Ankalaev can transform Pereira into a dud fireworks, what would Aspinall do? What would Jones do? Hell, what would Ciryl Gane do? Ankalaev rubbed a good part of this brilliant magic that “Poatan” carried, and that Sheen was an important part of the pleasure.
Not that Ankalaev does not do exactly because he had to make his own dream of becoming a champion. It was an thankless task to remove the most loved champion in the UFC. He welcomed more hoots than the French district on Tuesday fat last week, and he did it with the class. The UFC has done everything in its power to stack the chances in favor of Pereira. He even reserved the fight for Mars, at the full time of Ramadan, an era when devotation Muslims generally avoid appointments.
For Ankalaev to be happy, everyone – apart from the Paris public and select the others along the Caspian Sea – was going to be sad. He was supposed to be compulsory by Jon Fitch. The sleeping face of meritocracy. He was Liz Carmouche coming for Ronda Rousey. The third round will be debated, but he won Fair and Square, whether you agree with dashboards or not.
When Pereira returns, there will be regrets to accompany his updated resolved. He'll see that The urgency may not have been the place where you had to beAnd that when his corner of Glover Teixeira and Plinio Cruz implored him to come to life in the fifth round, it was for a good reason. Can he indicate a disturbed camp? The trip to Australia to maintain the sponsor's obligations a few weeks before the fight? The circus of his own celebrity?
He can. But in the next day, Pereira seemed more disappointed by Ankalaev's approach.
“Giving him the victory with a match plan like this kind of incitement to people to do so,” he said after the fight. “People could say that it is a boring style, but when a guy gets a victory by doing this, it makes people want to do so too. I injured it against the fence, the only difference is that I was the one against the fence. »»
The folds of the links are still fresh behind to prove it. It was not the way Pereira wanted to put an end to her light heavyweight rule. Nor was it the way people wanted it to end. The sparkles have never been celebrated.
But it's MMA for you. Its beauty is in the stories that are destroyed, a sport with a strict anti-frost policy that goes against so many ideals. However, one of the reasons why Pereira is the star he is? This is because he came back from losses before. The last time he lost, against Israel Adesanya to the UFC 287 to drop his average weight title less than two years ago, he accumulated a weight category and has skyrocketed in his status as the largest essential fighter in the UFC.
Can he start again? This question is the foundation of what comes next.
Before the fight week, I asked Teixeira who, in his mind, was closest to Pereira in terms of star power. Again, it was not an exact equivalent, but the name he found was Liddell. “The Iceman”, which Teixeira learned so much when he himself came as a fighter. Chuck had a stripper pole in his house, a mohawk and a refrigerator door full of spicy sauces, as well as a brawler mentality. He was a rock star.
Until it was not.
