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Dricus Du Plessis thinks a rejuvenated Alex Pereira will even the score with Magomed Ankalaev.

Pereira (12-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) will look to reclaim his light heavyweight title from Ankalaev when the pair run things back in Saturday's UFC 320 main event (pay-per-view, FX/ESPNews/Disney+, ESPN+) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Pereira was never able to get going on the feet and was ultimately outstruck in a unanimous decision loss to Ankalaev (21-1-1 MMA, 12-1-1 UFC) at UFC 313. However, with Pereira taking some time off from his active schedule as champion, Du Plessis predicts a much better showing from him.

"I've been looking at the training footage of Pereira for this one," Du Plessis said on "Fight Forecast." "He looks scary, he looks angry. And, you know, we'll see what that loss did to him. He has come back from a loss and came back to reclaim the title, but this fight is a big fight for him. Ankalaev now has that confidence, of course, of being the champion. But I'm going to go Pereira on this one."

Pereira stuffed all 12 of Ankalaev's takedowns but found himself controlled against the cage for over 5 minutes. Du Plessis thinks "Poatan" will be able to make the adjustments to avoid being in that position in the rematch.

"It wasn't the fact that he got taken down; it's the fact that he got smothered," Du Plessis said of Pereira. "For a striker, that's not so hard to – I think he's got the right people around. That's not going to be so hard to figure out. This is how I don't get smothered, learn to fight in that clinch situation because he has the elbows, he has the knees. He has all that.

"So, he's going to need to keep his back off the fence, and I do believe that they've spent enough time working on that. Him taking some time away from the sport was good for him. Sometimes you need to do that to get that reset and get that hunger back. ... I really don't see this fight going the distance this time, but I'm putting my money on Pereira to reclaim the title. I have to go with him."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dricus Du Plessis: Alex Pereira 'looks angry,' reclaims title from Magomed Ankalaev

Reporting by Farah Hannoun, MMA Junkie / MMA Junkie

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