Magomed Ankalaev was visibly and logically upset after his battle against Jan Blachowicz ended in a draw. The soft-spoken fighter was not afraid to voice his dismay for the judges in his post-fight interview. At one point he even doubted if he would carry on fighting for UFC.
UFC president Dana White and some other high-ranking officials did not take Ankalaev’s comments very fondly. In the post-fight press conference, Dana announced a Glover Teixeira vs Jamahl Hill fight for the title in January’s UFC 283 Rio card. Later, Magomed addressed the situation on Twitter.
Per Ankalaev, the ‘leaving UFC’ comment was mistranslated. Actually, he wanted to question the judges deployed by the Las Vegas Sports Commission. If the judges were so consistently underqualified, then it would only be wise to avoid this venue.
On the same card’s co-main event, Jared Gordon was robbed in all rounds and the decision was handed to Paddy. The Dagestani fighter may have alluded to that fight. Gordon however responded slightly differently to his robbery but the point remains.
This whole debacle now puts the Light-heavyweight in a weird spot. He picked up 9 consecutive wins on his way to the title. This draw might destroy that momentum and his willingness to fight altogether. However, he has many fans and fighters in his support.
The 30-year-old now has to climb the ranks again to get to the title. There aren’t many ranked fighters in his division that he hasn’t defeated. Jan has called for a potential rematch, a matchup against Paul Craig would also be interesting as the British fighter won in their previous bout.
Magomed himself seems interested in continuing his journey. He wrote on Twitter, “I fought my heart out today, there is no excuse, but I had a compromised knee, it wasn’t my best performance, but I know I won the fight. Thank you @danawhite and the @ufc for giving me this opportunity.”
I wanna clear something up, what I said after the fight was I don’t want to fight in this city anymore because of the horrible judging, I did not say anything about I don’t wanna fight in the UFC.
I wanna thank @danawhite and @Mickmaynard2 for the opportunity
— Magomed Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM) December 11, 2022
I fought my heart out today, there is no excuse, but I had a compromised knee, it wasn’t my best performance, but I know I won the fight. Thank you @danawhite and the @ufc for giving me this opportunity
— Magomed Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM) December 11, 2022
