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Original Description
Stream UFC 320 on ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/ufc/ppv
UFC Live’s Jon Anik, Chael Sonnen, Dominick Cruz and Anthony Smith preview the two title fights headlining UFC 320 in Las Vegas.
0:00 Magomed Ankalaev vs. Alex Pereira 2
4:59 Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen
9:29 Fight predictions
#UFC320 #UFC #MMA
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Video Transcript
All right. So, the first fight back in
March, depending on who you ask, was
either close or not that close. Dom,
what are your expectations for the
rematch here Saturday night?
Well, I'm expecting a much closer fight
because I think that Pa's coming in a
little healthier. We've heard rumors
that maybe he wasn't as healthy in the
last one. He might be less healthy now
for this fight. It's not like he trained
any less hard, but
we're going to assume he's coming in
healthier and more prepared mentally
because he's not as busy as he was
before that last fight. But, I think
we're going to see somebody who knows
how to use his offense more. I think
Peda is going to go back to the drawing
board and say, "Man, I didn't let my
offense go. I let him control the pace
of the fight. I let him control the
distance of the fight." And that's why
he lost. Not to me, not to mention
Ankolv and his faints and his fakes in
between the strikes is what really made
a difference to strike at the level of
Pada. So, the question is, can Pahada
deal with that rhythm and get forward
and let his offense go instead of
waiting for Anollayia? That's really
what it's going to come down to. Yeah,
I'm going to come down on Alex in a way
that I'm I'm doing it to build him up on
Saturday night. I don't think that he
took their first fight very serious and
he didn't have to say that. Just watch
what he did. He was traveling all over
the world. He was at every single p
every pay-per-view I worked at. He was
there hanging out in the crowd. So, I
don't know how hard you're actually
training.
We heard the rumors that he was injured.
We've seen his physical therapist bring
up the things he was dealing with. I I
just don't think he took it that
serious. I think that he overlooked
Magnamemed Uncle and and didn't think
that that guy could really push him. and
then he found himself in a in a fact
that he couldn't win in the shape that
he was in.
I I just think that we're going to see
more of the same. I just think we're
going to see it at a higher level. I
think the output's going to be higher. I
think that he he lost a lot. All these
champions know exactly what comes in.
And Dominic Cruz can speak to that
better than anybody. There's a lot of
things that come with being a champion
that you immediately lose when you're
not.
Sometimes that discourages people and
they kind of fade away into obscurity
and some people it motivates him to go
get it back.
Yeah. Well put. So going into the first
meeting ch there was a healthy
competitiveness but not necessarily this
friction verbally between the two
athletes and you as the sort of master
orator of all oratoraiders during your
career you were able to occupy head
space and opponents. Do you think this
is any sort of factor in terms of what
we see Saturday night?
This all started a week ago. Everything
was cool in the gang. This is the number
one title fight that nobody asked for.
None of us asked for it. Dana White
didn't ask for it. Uncle I have asked
for it. Yes, you heard me right. Uncle
Iv beat Pier, went to the postfight
press conference and called out Pier.
Uncle knew that Pier was the bigger
star. He knew that people weren't going
to be accepting of this. He knew he was
going to have to do rounds six through
10, if you will. Max Kellerman has a
quote and I'm going to quote him and
this is from a boxing standpoint, but it
covers over to MMA. If a younger fighter
beats an older fighter and they rematch,
the younger fighter will beat him again
only quicker.
Yeah. No, I think that makes a lot of
sense. And there are just so many
different storylines intangibly leading
into this fight. Peda's relative health
in that first meeting. You can go to
sbn.com right now. Brett Okamoto has a
great article. He talked to Poeton's
physical therapist. There was a stress
fracture in his tibia. Certainly
impacted his conditioning and his
preparation. I know Dom, you guys are
going to give a prediction later, but
does this factor into your handicap of
the rematch knowing that Pada was not
healthy and only quote unquote 40% of
his normal self? Well, as somebody who's
fought on antibiotics, who's fought with
broken hands moving into title fights,
who's fought with stretch fractures in
the feet, whatnot, this is part of being
a UFC champion. You come into the fight
not healthy more times than not because
the UFC keeps you very active as
champion. If you're not fighting as
champion, then they get mad. You got to
stay active. And so, they kept extremely
active. So, I don't think that it's a
doubt that he was beat up going into
that fight. But he signed the dotted
line knowing what shape he was in just
like I did on some of my losses for the
title. When you d sign the dotted line,
doesn't matter if you're hurt. You
signed. Now, how do we know he's not
more injured now and he's just not going
to talk about it? How do we know? And
then after the fight happens, we say,
"Ah, well, actually, he was on two doses
of antibiotics this time." Well, yes,
no, maybe. So, bottom line is I think
he's going to show up at his best and
because they fought, they're going to
make adjustments, and he's going to show
up better in this fight against Anolia.
I I truly believe that Ankoliah
overperformed. He was better than I'd
ever seen him. He He was He took more
risks. His output was higher. He was
switching stances. We didn't really see
him do that a whole lot before.
Obviously wrestled more. He was 0 for
12, but that's 12 attempts, right?
Which are are just as good as a taked
down with a guy that strikes like Alex
Pereira. I think that Ankalive moved
forward in this fight more than he more
than he does typically. He kind of just
hangs back and holds holds ground. Him
moving forward made made Alex have a
really tough time striking. when you've
seen Pereira start to move forward, he
started to land a little bit more. So,
I'm I I expect to see more of that. I
think Pereira was 40% might be crazy,
but if he's 70, that's still a huge
difference. So, if Anolia overperformed
and I believe that Pereira was at 70 and
he comes in healthy, I think we're going
to see a very very close fight. And I
probably I see we I I see it ending in a
finish. I really do.
All right, predictions later in the
show, at least to this point, the
analysis hasn't necessarily showed up at
the betting window. Alex Peda north of
plus 200 right now as the underdog come
Saturday night.
All right, welcome back to UFC live here
in Las Vegas. So, it all comes down to
this for Cory Sanhagen at long last.
That elusive shot at the world title
owned of course by the massive superstar
Robilly Anthony Smith. He's making his
third defense already this year. Fans
are excited about this matchup. How
come?
Well, Rob is he's gotten more popular as
time goes, but I don't think that he's
changed his style so much. But I think
that we're just leaning into maybe I
think he's showing more of his
personality. So I think we're leaning
into that and we're see we're we're
seeing him grow. He's he's getting
finishes.
He's beating better and better guys. I
think a lot of the names of the people
that he's beating has helped grow his
star. But also Cory Sanhagen is exciting
and I think a lot of people just like I
think probably a lot of us think that
Cory Sanhagen needs a finish to probably
beat Morab. That he's probably unlikely
to to win 25 straight minutes on his way
to a decision.
Right. If he wins in the way in the way
that he has to, it's exciting that
that's we've seen the flying knees, the
spinning heel kicks, the the the jumping
weird elbows, he does some really
incredible things and I think people are
excited about that.
So, we talk about these infight antics
with Marab Dualisy. We brought it up in
our fighter meeting and he said the only
thing he regretted was kissing Shawn
Ali. He doesn't regret going over and
talking to Mark Zuckerberg when he's
grappling the Olympic gold medalist
Henry Cejudo. Um, but you know, John
Wood at times has talked about infight
focus. What do you make of Morab's
antics, Chip?
I I actually admire because I could
never do it. I was so tired in every
single fight. I couldn't put out that
kind of energy. I couldn't imagine not
being fully focused. I couldn't imagine
speaking. Just for example, the only
thing I was going to do was listen to my
coach and drink some water in between. I
tell you that because some guys can stay
relaxed. You You have to be a certain
level of relaxed and in the moment,
almost taking like a sparring session to
have this kind of an attitude. And it
can be very helpful. And it it is for
Moroc.
I mean, he can balance fun and focus.
And John Wood doesn't want to eliminate
all the fun. I think few fighters have
as much fun in Octagon as Morab Dwalish
Willy. Now most observers would argue
our colleague Dominic Cruz as the
greatest bantamweight of all time. So
because you are here and because this
matchup was actually on the horizon at
some point during your career, how would
you go about trying to beat Morab?
I really thought I was going to face
him. You know, there was a time in my
career where I was asking for that fight
against Morab because I saw how many
wins he had and that was the guy. And
the way that I'm fighting Morab, if I'm
in this situation as Sanhagen with very
similar gifts, I mean, this guy moves
his feet well. He switches stance. He's
better at striking than most of us. I
like to move forward. If you're
Sanhagen, you got to go to the body
early and use your offensive striking to
the body with faints and forward
pressure to keep Morab moving back. That
mixed with when Morav does shoot, keep
him off the single legs, keep him off of
your back, keep him off the front
headlock. And no matter what, you don't
have to stop Morav from grabbing you.
You just got to create scrambles when he
does grab you and not allow him to sink
on top of you and get any kind of
momentum with pressure. As long as you
keep it non-stop moving flow, even in
the grappling and scrambles, now you got
Morab constantly working, never really
getting comfortable. You keep Morab
uncomfortable for five rounds. You keep
him missing shots. You keep him moving
and trying to grab you on the angles.
And you put your long combinations
together. You stay on the outside. You
fire your jab. You keep your kicks
going. You stay at kick range. And these
are all things you can do to beat a
shorter wrestler, which I did against
all team alphabet for many, many years.
So, Dwallish Willie is certainly not a
one-trick pony, right? He's the most
decorated takedown artist in UFC
history. 97 takedowns thus far, but it's
not as though he isn't well-rounded. I'm
putting you on the spot, but who do you
think has more ways to win this fight?
I love being on the spot. And by the
way, my teammate Ricky Simone is one of
the few guys to beat Morav. So, I've
been through a training camp when guys
are focused on him. I've I've watched
the tapes and sit and studied him.
Listen, Morab is coming out and telling
everybody he wants to win this with
striking. I don't believe him in the
least. However, if he was forced to
strike, it's not like I can tell you
somebody that's out struck Morab. He
keeps his chin down. He's very basic. He
throws punches and he moves forward. I
like Morab all around. I mean, if you're
asking me who knows more about mixed
martial arts, I think that it's
Sandhagen. But if you can understand the
weaponization of pace like George St.
Pierre did, for example, like Randy
Couture did before that, for example, I
think Mob is about as intimidating of a
guy as we've got under contract.
We are absolutely loaded on pay-per-view
Saturday night at UFC 320. Ankallayia
versus Peda 2. You know about the
championship double header. But you want
to talk about chaos in an octagon. I
submit to you Yuri Prohaska. Really
against anybody, but in this case it'll
be Khalil Roundtree Jr. also a
featherweight eliminator of sorts
between top 10 ranked Josh EMTT and Ysef
Zal. All right, my heavy lifting is
done. Now it's all about our esteemed
analysts. It is time for predictions
brought to you by DAV, keeping our
promise to America's veterans. Sorry.
Co-main event. Morab Dwallis willy says
he will be the first man to knock out
Cory Sandhagen. So, will the champ do
what no fighter has done and actually
knock Cory out?
Morab's not going to knock him out, but
Morab is likely to stop him around the
fourth round. I think it's going to be a
TKO situation and sometimes people get
those confused. I think he's just going
to be on top a little bit too long. He's
going to wear Cory down and ultimately
the referee's going to have to pull him
off.
Yeah, I think Morab gets the decision by
out controlling Cory Sanhagen for most
of the fight like he's done in all his
other 13 fight win streak.
Yeah, I'm going Morab as well. Cory just
hasn't shown his ability to to stop a
highle wrestler. We've kind of seen
similar matchups with him before and
that is that is the one singular
in his arm.
Yeah, that Umar Nagamea film is pretty
damning. But we'll see what San Hen can
can do. He's a big underdog. A little
bit tighter in the main event rematch
for the light heavyweight title. Alex
Peda of course believes without a shadow
of a doubt that he will reclaim the
title against Magamemed Ankal. Will we
hear and new or and still?
And still. And by the way, it's going to
be the best news that we get. The main
thing I want as a fan, by the way, I
want Pierra at heavyweight. Everywhere I
go, people want to talk about the White
House card. Let me give you a surprise.
Pierre is going to be a player at
heavyweight for that card if he loses
this fight. I think he becomes a bigger
star in defeat, but Uncle does leave the
champion.
I love that Uncle called this fight out
as immediate rematch. It shows the guts
he's got and how sure he is he can win.
I do believe Uncle gets the win. I think
he does similar fight that he did
against Bea in the first one. If if I
believe that Ankolia overperformed and I
believe that Pereira was as injured and
as sick as I do, then I I have to
believe that if he comes in healthy and
100% and focused and taking Mag serious,
then I have to believe that Alex Pereira
wins this fight.
Wow.
So, I'm going in new.
All right. Poet plus 210 or so. We'll
see how it all shakes out. Uncle 21-1,
hasn't lost since 2018. We'll see the
extent to which he meets his match come
Saturday night. We hope you will join us
wall to wall for our coverage at UFC
320. The early prelims kickoff at 600
p.m. Eastern on the ESPN app and Disney
Plus. Then continuation of the prelims
at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on ESPN News as
well as the ESPN app and Disney Plus.
Main card 1000 p.m. Eastern only on the
ESPN app. Two belts will be on the line.
Magamemed Ankalv and Morab Dwalish
Willie are the incumbents. We'll see if
the challengers Cory Sanhagen and Alex
Poeton Peda can do anything about all of
that.
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