Magomed Ankalaev wants his belt back.
Aside from Alex Pereira, Ankalaev hasn’t lost a fight since 2018, and unfortunately for “Big Ank,” that trilogy match isn’t happening any time soon. As it stands, Ankalaev is ranked as the No. 2 205-pound contender. He’s behind only “Poatan,” who is off at Heavyweight for the foreseeable future. While champion Carlos Ulberg recovers from knee surgery, Ankalaev is seemingly the top dog and wants to solidify his title shot before “Black Jag” returns to action.
A ho-hum win over Bogdan Guskov alone isn’t enough.
Fortunately, most of the top-ranked 205-pounders are unbooked. A heavily discussed option is Paulo Costa, who lit the division on fire when he moved up and handed Azamat Murzakanov his first professional loss with a thudding head kick. Unfortunately, the bout has yet to materialize, and Ankalaev is growing frustrated with Costa repeatedly turning him down.
“I was being told by my team today that Paulo Costa turned down a fight with me for THIRD time now,” Ankalaev wrote on X. “I would turn the fight against me also.”
Ankalaev continued, “The reason I want to fight Paulo Costa is not because he is an easy fight, he’s a great competitor and I want to test my skills against his skills. None of this is personal.”
Back in June, Costa admitted to turning down “Big Ank” on short-notice, because the UFC didn’t offer him any additional money for the circumstances. That explains one of the alleged ducking incidents, but what about the others? Ankalaev could be a huge win for Costa, the kind of victory that immediately scores him a title shot in his new weight class.
Unless Costa is still hoping to face Khamzat Chimaev, there’s not a bigger fight available for the Brazilian.
