Mar 8, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Alex Pereira (red gloves) fights Magomed Ankalaev (blue gloves) during UFC 313 at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

Dan Hardy thinks Alex Pereira was too hesitant in his first fight against Magomed Ankalaev.

Pereira (12-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) was outstruck in his light heavyweight title loss to Ankalaev at UFC 313 in March. Despite stuffing all 12 of Ankalaev's takedown attempts, he wasn't able to capitalize on the feet.

"Poatan" will get an immediate rematch against Ankalaev (21-1-1 MMA, 12-1-1 UFC) in the UFC 320 main event on Oct. 4 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

"I think maybe he had a little bit too much respect for Ankalaev in the last fight," Hardy told Helen Yee of Pereira. "I also think he wasn't quite sure which hand Ankalaev was going to play. Ankalaev is very, very confident as a striker. His wrestling has always been a backup in his game, and he's never particularly wanted to use it too much. But just the idea of it being there, the threat, it seemed to make Pereira kind of hesitate a little too much.

"Pereira, when he's at that close range, either when you're coming to him – like when (Sean) Strickland fought him, Strickland was walking into his range – or when someone's moving away and he's walking into their range like Jamahal Hill, you feel that pressure of his kind of frame coming at you and people feel like they need to react."

So what does Pereira need to do to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again in the rematch?

"If I'm Pereira, I would be thinking about getting as close to him as possible, getting in his face, maybe even try and use a bit of Thai clinch just to kind of manage the clinch a bit," Hardy said. "He's going to be better defending takedowns on the front foot as well, right? Better if he's pressuring forward and forcing Ankalaev to shoot under pressure."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Analyst: Alex Pereira had little too much respect for Magomed Ankalaev in first UFC fight

Reporting by Farah Hannoun, MMA Junkie / MMA Junkie

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