It appears that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira will need to have his wrestling shoes on after all when he faces Magomed Ankalaev next weekend.
Following action at the Apex on Saturday night, all eyes will soon turn to the mixed martial arts leader's next pay-per-view offering, UFC 313 at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena on March 8.
Headlining will be Pereira's first defense of 2025. After three straight wins last year to cement his status as 205-pound kingpin, "Poatan" will next meet the challenge of Ankalaev.
The Russian has long been branded the biggest threat to the Brazilian's reign, largely owing to his wrestling prowess. The challenger, however, has frequently vowed to get the better of Pereira on the feet.
As many predicted, though, that proclamation looks to have been retracted...
"CHAMA is a dead man walking," he wrote on X. "I'm going to drown this man (wrestling emojis)"
Ankalaev's knockout power was on display when he stopped Johnny Walker early last year.
But Pereira marks an entirely different beast on the feet, having stopped the likes of Israel Adesanya, Jamahal Hill, and Jiří Procházka with strikes and once reigned as a two-division Glory Kickboxing champ.