{"id":3133,"date":"2025-10-05T08:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/ufc-320-pereira-stuns-ankalaev-with-tko-to-regain-light-heavyweight-title\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T08:36:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:36:04","slug":"ufc-320-pereira-stuns-ankalaev-with-tko-to-regain-light-heavyweight-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/ufc-320-pereira-stuns-ankalaev-with-tko-to-regain-light-heavyweight-title\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC 320: Pereira stuns Ankalaev with TKO to regain light heavyweight title"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Alex Pereira won back the light heavyweight title with a technical knockout of Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320 in Las Vegas.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Alex Pereira has caused a boilover at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 320 with a first-round technical knockout (TKO) of heavily favoured Magomed Ankalaev in Las Vegas, regaining his undisputed light heavyweight championship belt and avenging his defeat by the Russian seven months earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Pereira took only one minute and 20 seconds to defeat Ankalaev after he dropped the 33-year-old champion with a huge right hook less than a minute into the contest on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/10\/5\/real-madrid-beat-villarreal-as-vinicius-jr-scores-two-goals-mbappe-injured\">Vinicius Jr double against Villarreal helps Real Madrid go top of La Liga<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/10\/5\/lionel-messi-assists-inter-miami-back-into-win-column-against-revolution\">Lionel Messi assists Inter Miami back into win column against Revolution<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/10\/4\/chelsea-beat-liverpool-with-late-estevao-goal-as-arsenal-top-premier-league\">Chelsea beat Liverpool with late Estevao goal as Arsenal top Premier League<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/10\/4\/india-vs-pakistan-icc-womens-world-cup-match-time-handshake-row-rain\">Will India-Pakistan hostility and rain mar Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup match?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The Brazilian then finished off the fight with a flurry of punches and elbows before the match referee called off the bout.<\/p>\n<p>Ankalaev, who had never been knocked out in a UFC match, had his 14-match unbeaten run ended, going back to his promotional debut at a UFC Fight Night in March 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Pre-fight,\u00a0Pereira was the decided underdog, with Ankalaev backed by 89 percent of the fight bets at BetMGM.<\/p>\n<p>Ankalaev (20-2-1, 12-2-1 UFC) had already beaten Pereira (13-3, 10-2 UFC) in their first bout at UFC 313 on March 8. Pereira claimed he fought at just 40 percent of his usual capabilities due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>Pereira\u2019s victory makes him a two-time UFC light heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n<p>The 38-year-old\u2019s victory revives the light heavyweight title picture, taking the belt from a fighter in Ankalaev who did little to inspire hope for the future of the division. With Jiri Prochazka also winning his bout by stunning knockout, it awakened the potential for a third bout against Pereira for the belt.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4009039\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4009039\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AFP__20251005__2239291482__v1__HighRes__Ufc320AnkalaevVPereira2-1759640668.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev in action.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4009039\">Pereira, right, punches Magomed Ankalaev in the first round moments before the fight was stopped by the match referee due to technical knockout [Sean M Haffey\/Getty Images via AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the earlier co-main event championship bout, Merab Dvalishvili (21-4-0) defended his undisputed bantamweight crown with a unanimous decision against Cory Sandhagen (18-6-0) in their five-round contest.<\/p>\n<p>The three judges scored it for Dvalishvili: 49-45, 49-45 and 49-46.<\/p>\n<p>The most anticipated action of the main card began with a light heavyweight war between Prochazka (32-5-1) and Khalil Rountree Jr (15-7-0). With a loss likely in the balance late in the third, the Czech fighter landed a devastating combination that knocked Rountree out cold with two minutes left on the clock.<\/p>\n<p>Rountree gained an early advantage by landing multiple series of high-calibre combinations in the first round that left Prochazka clearly stumbling into the second. The exchanges also tired Rountree, allowing Prochazka a chance to find a window with his third-round explosion.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4009141\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4009141\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AFP__20251005__2239286461__v2__HighRes__Ufc320AnkalaevVPereira2-1759643853.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C514&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree in action.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4009141\">Jiri Prochazka, left, of the Czech Republic fights Khalil Rountree Jr. of the United States during a light heavyweight bout in UFC 320 [ Sean M. Haffey\/Getty Images via AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Pereira won back the light heavyweight title with a technical knockout of Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320 in Las Vegas. Alex Pereira has caused a boilover at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 320 with a first-round technical knockout (TKO) of heavily favoured Magomed Ankalaev in Las Vegas, regaining his undisputed light heavyweight championship belt and &#8230; <a title=\"UFC 320: Pereira stuns Ankalaev with TKO to regain light heavyweight title\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/ufc-320-pereira-stuns-ankalaev-with-tko-to-regain-light-heavyweight-title\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about UFC 320: Pereira stuns Ankalaev with TKO to regain light heavyweight title\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}