Okay While Alex Pereira losing to Magomed Ankalaev was heartbreaking for ‘Poatan’ fans, it played out quite accurately to how people thought it would, in a situation where the Brazilian were to lose. Ankalaev put on the pressure, had some big moments hurting Pereira, mixed up the wrestling well to tire out the former champion, and didn’t give ‘Poatan’ the space to find his flow state—winning the fight over five rounds. And considering how dominant a champion Pereira was, and how he showed up as a company man on more than one occasion, a rematch is in order, don’t you think?

Dana White definitely thinks so. Even Ankalaev is shy to entertain ‘Poatan’ as the champion. However, the stakes of the rematch may well be potentially career-ending for the Brazilian former champ. At least that is what Michael Bisping thinks. The UFC commentator and former champ took to his YouTube channel, where he raised concerns about ‘Poatan’s career going forward should he lose to ‘Big Ank’ again.

“Champs don’t fight usually as regularly as what Pereira did, okay. Now that fight [the Ankalaev rematch] would be about seven months away, that’s quite long. Maybe that’s a good thing for Pereira, gives him time to actually go away and have a break. Have a rest, get hungry again, get mean, and miss not being a champion. Because the reality is at 37 years old, he’s got to make this one count. If Pereira comes back and loses to Ankalaev, I’m not saying that he’s going to be a sore loser or cry and go home and sulk over it. But realistically, the man’s done it all, he’s knocked it out the park,” he said.

Indeed, Alex Pereira has a claim to being the greatest combat sports athlete of all time! After all, as Bisping pointed out, ‘Poatan’ has been a two-division champion in two different sports. But when you’ve made it to the top, sometimes, the motivation starts to fade. Was this the case with ‘Poatan’? As Marvin Hagler once famously pointed out, “It’s tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 a.m. when you’re sleeping in silk pajamas.”

Conor McGregor, of course, is the clearest example of this. Bisping feels that if Pereira, who turns 38 this year, loses the rematch against Ankalaev, he may just not have the drive and hunger to continue fighting. And that is why Bisping feels that the Brazilian absolutely positively needs to win the rematch.

“He was a two-weight champion in kickboxing, a two-weight division champion in the UFC, made a tremendous amount of money, changed the trajectory of his family’s life forever, made millions of dollars, and did it all with his fist. Never sold himself short, he’s a fan favorite, he’s very popular and he’s got nothing more to prove. And he could go on by the way, if he loses to Ankalaev again, he could continue having fights, he could continue main eventing, being on pay-per-views, he’ll always be a draw. But would he want to still do that?” he added. But on the other hand, there is also a silver lining for fans in this Pereira loss.

Tom Aspinall jubilant at Alex Pereira’s UFC 313 loss

Jon Jones wants to fight Alex Pereira. Or at least he did until the Brazilian held the title. And the feeling was mutual. In fact, many fans felt that the biggest roadblock in a Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall heavyweight title unification clash was Alex Pereira. If ‘Poatan’ had won the UFC 313 Ankalaev clash, it would have opened the door for the Brazilian to move up and fight Jones for three-division champ status.

However, as interim heavyweight champ Aspinall pointed out on his YouTube channel, with this loss, a Jones-Pereira clash is “Off the table now.” Of course, the Jones-Pereira clash is a fight fans desperately want to see. Even Dana White has admitted that it would be “the biggest fight” in the promotion’s nearly three-and-a-half-decade history.

But Jones, who has asked for “f—k you money” for the Aspinall fight, hasn’t been able to agree on terms with the UFC, even as Dana White keeps assuring fans that the heavyweight unification clash is coming. However, with Pereira’s loss, Aspinall is hopeful that ‘Bones’ will finally agree to fight him.

“Yeah … Jon, there’s only one thing to do, mate, sign the contract, and let’s get a date going. We’ve seen last night Dana White was talking. Everything is now done on Jon’s side and the UFC now have to find a date and a venue, a place, location. So we’re waiting for that. We’ve got some good news coming soon, hopefully,” the English interim heavyweight champ said. What do you think about Michael Bisping’s take on the stakes of the Pereira-Ankalaev clash?