Abu Dhabi – UFC light heavyweight Magomed Ankalaev says he’s next for a title shot with a win over Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 on Saturday night.
That doesn’t mean he isn’t wary of his opponent trying to steal his title shot in Abu Dhabi.
“Every fighter that comes out against me they all come out there with the thought of winning,” Ankalaev told reporters through a translator on Wednesday.
“When the cage closes somehow things don’t go the same way that they plan to do it. For me I am sharp, I’m ready to do what I need to implement my game plan and then we’ll see what happens in the fight.”
Ankalaev (19-1-1) has said that he feels Rakic will be a tougher fight than one against the UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. He feels Rakic is much more well-rounded.
“It’s not like he’s like that tough, but the fact is he’s well-rounded. He does have striking, he does have the ground game, right? When it comes to the champion he’s just got the strikes. We know those strikes and we haven’t seen him wrestle ever,” he said.
Ankalaev has been out of character in the lead up to this fight. He’s taken to social media to fire back at fellow fighters who criticize him.
“We decided that we have to be much more vocal than we were before because it’s been like two years I’ve been waiting for a title fight? So now we figured that, if people are throwing some kind of comment towards me, we have to comment back,” he said.
“If people are calling us out then we have to call them back out or accept their callouts. We have to keep moving forward and we have to do it by being more vocal.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Magomed Ankalaev above. He takes on Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 on Saturday.
