"Don't think people are ready for the heartbreak" - Fans react as Magomed Ankalaev trains with Alexander Volkov ahead of Alex Pereira fight

UFC 313, headlined by Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev, is just weeks away. And ahead of it, the Russian challenger is training with a prominent heavyweight contender.

Having fought his first title fight to a split draw against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 282, Ankalaev doesn't plan to leave things to the judges' scorecards this time around.

With that in mind, Ankalaev is training with is Alexander Volkov, who is coming off a controversial loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC 310. Volkov shared the snap with Ankalaev, possibly taken after a sparring session, at the Porrada Training Center in Las Vegas.

The Russian captioned the post:

"We don't forget about the hit either." (translated to English)

A fan reshared the image on a Reddit feed, sparking a flurry of reactions in the comments section as many users eagerly shared their thoughts:

"Getting the biggest Islam/Charles vibes from the Ank/Pereira matchup. Don't think people are ready for the heartbreak," one wrote.

Islam Makhachev won the vacant title at UFC 280 with a second-round submission victory over Charles Oliveira. There are intriguing similarities between the main events of UFC 280 and UFC 313. Though the title was for the vacant belt, many considered Oliveira the champ as he had only lost the belt due to missing weight.

In that sense, it the champions for UFC 280 and UFC 313 are both Brazilian while the challengers are Russians, from Dagestan. Moreover, Oliveira was a huge fan favorite going into the fight, similar is the case for Pereira.

"I think it translates to something like 'we are practicing striking as well' i guess this means that Ankalaev will have a heavy wrestling approach against Pereira," another fan wrote, deducing the challenger's game plan.

Ankalaev has vowed to engage in a striking battle with Pereira, even though many fighters and analysts believe it to be a mistake considering the champion's apparent weakness in the wrestling department.

"And now Poatan is having dinner with beautiful women, enjoying good music and driving supercars," a fan commented.

Check out more comments below:

Screenshot of comments [Image source @u/heliumflower on Reddit]

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Alex Pereira reveals the opponent he enjoyed fighting

Alex Pereira has fought several high-level opponents across his kickboxing and MMA careers. However, his rivalry with Israel Adesanya, spanning both disciplines, has a special place in combat sports history.

As such, it was unsurprising for Pereira to name Adesanya as the fighter he enjoyed competing against in his recent appearance on Straight Talk with Mark Bouris.

Alex Pereira said:

"I would say [Israel] Adesanya. Because due to the history that we had, moments that of adversity, moments that I had to overcome. So, Israel Adesanya."

Check out Alex Pereira's comments (translated by Plinio Cruz) below (24:55):