After a historic season in 2024, UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira makes his first appearance of the new year.
Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) will look to defend his belt for the fourth straight time when he takes on streaking contender Magomed Ankalaev (20-1-1 MMA, 11-1-1) in the main event UFC) competes from UFC 313, which takes place on March 8th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+).
The UFC announced the booking during Saturday’s UFC 311 broadcast.
Pereira, No. 2 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie pound-for-pound rankings and No. 1 light heavyweight, defended his belt three times in a record 175 days last year, beating Jamahal Hill , Jiri in April Prochazka in July and Khalil Rountree in October.
“Poatan” has openly said that he didn’t like the way Ankalaev, at No. 2 in the rankings, went about making the fight possible and that he would resist if possible, but in the end he did Duel worked out.
It’s the second chance at gold for Ankalaev, who fought to a draw against Jan Blachowicz in a vacant title fight at UFC 282 in December 2022. This result was part of his current 13-fight unbeaten streak, dating back to his only career loss to Paul Craig in March 2018.
Now Ankalaev, 32, will get another chance to run the division and he has claimed he will clash with world-class kickboxer Pereira, 37.
The latest UFC 313 lineup now includes:
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Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev – for the light heavyweight title
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Justin Gaethje vs. Dan Hooker
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Iasmin Lucindo vs Amanda Lemos
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Bruno Silva vs. Joshua Van
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Brunno Ferreira vs. Armen Petrosyan
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Chris Gutierrez vs. Jean Matsumoto
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Francis Marshall vs. Mairon Santos
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Carlos Leal vs. Alex Morono
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Ozzy Diaz vs. Djorden Santos
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Jhonata Diniz vs. Vitor Petrino
For more information on the card, check out MMA Junkie’s UFC 313 event hub.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: The title fight between Alex Pereira and Magomedov Ankalaev made headlines at UFC 313 in March