Ankalaev talks about meeting with Poatan and threatens the Brazilian: 'If you come near me…'

Magomed Ankalayev in victory over Alex Poatán No. UFC 313. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @ankalaev_magomed

The rivalry between Alex Poatán e Magomed Ankalayev atingiu novo nível de tensão restando pouco mais de uma semana para o UFC 320. After meet in person and exchange barbs in a curious way, with the help of an online translator, the light heavyweight champion (up to 93 kg) revealed that he had lost any shred of respect he had for the Brazilian

Angered by Poatan's accusations, who stated that he had hidden from a meeting at the UFC Performance Institute, Ankalaev hit back harshly and called his rival a liar, in an interview with journalists in Las Vegas.

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"Honestly, until recently, I respected him as a fighter and a person. I don't respect him anymore because trash talk is one thing to drum up interest in the fight, to say something funny or even malicious, but when you lie to people and say you saw the other guy hide? I don't respect people like that. Why would you lie about something that never happened?" he asked.

The champion also spoke about the meeting he had with the Brazilian, when he confronted Poatan in front of his team about the statements he made days before.

"The problem is that he was talking all this nonsense a few days ago, and today I met him when I was just with my coach, and he was with the whole team. I approached him and asked: 'Hey guys, you were lying that I was hiding and I'm here now. What are you going to do?' Then he responded by saying that it was the girl who said this and that and started making things up," said the Russian.

Ankalaev reinforced that he does not intend to provoke incidents outside the octagon, but made a point of warning the Brazilian about the risks of another encounter during fight week.

"I don't have any problems, but if he gets too close to me next week, I'll have to defend myself. Other than that, we'll see everything in the octagon."

Alex Poatán e Magomed Ankalayev face each other in the main fight of the UFC 320, no dia 4 de outubro, em Las Vegas, nos Estados Unidos. Será a revanche imediata pelo cinturão dos meio-pesados, após o russo destronar o brasileiro no UFC 313, in March of this year.

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