Joe Rogan breaks down Magomed Ankalaev's lone UFC loss, hails his knockout power

Joe Rogan recently spoke about Magomed Ankalaev's performance at UFC 313. The newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champion did exactly what he promised: outlast Alex Pereira in the striking realm to take his belt.

When he proudly announced that he wouldn't use his superior wrestling to beat 'Poatan', everyone thought Ankalaev was either lying or knew something we didn't.

As it turned out, it was the latter as Ankalaev confidently took the center of the Octagon and took the fight to Pereira, meeting him shot-for-shot. The Dagestani warrior used forward pressure, calculated aggression, and smart angles to keep 'Poatan' on his back leg. By doing this, he negated Pereira's one-shot KO power to win via unanimous decision.

With Magomed Ankalaev surprising nearly the entire MMA media with his gutsy performance, Joe Rogan gave his insight on just how good the new champion's striking is.

Rogan said (via Joe Rogan Experience):

"It was so interesting because the consequences of exchanging with Pereira are so high, but also Ankalaev... Ankalaev has knocked a lot of people out. We always look at Pereira's knockouts, but Ankalaev has knocked out some of the best guys in the division." [0:57]

He continued:

"And he only lost one time and that was...Paul Craig has the nastiest f*cking triangle. It's so sneaky and so quick and you don't expect it. He's so high level off his back and he caught him. I think it was one second to go in the third round [in] a fight that he was losing." [1:12]

Listen to Joe Rogan here:

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Joe Rogan talks more about Paul Craig's Jiu-jitsu

Rogan was on point with his recollection of Paul Craig vs Magomed Ankalaev. The Scottish submission wizard fought Ankalaev at UFC Fight Night 127 back in 2018, which was the Dagestani's UFC debut.

After getting battered from pillar to post from rounds one to three, 'Bearjew' submitted his debuting opponent with a Hail Mary triangle choke with exactly one second left in the fight. It was one of the most glorious comeback wins in UFC history.

On Craig Paul's grappling genius, Rogan said:

"There's a giant disparity between his [Craig's] stand-up - which is good, he has good stand-up. The Bo Nickal fight was entirely stand-up. It was a good fight, you know. He looked good on the feet. But you would never say, you know, that he's an Israel Adesanya-type character.

"But when he gets on his back, you're in such danger. Nobody else in the division. It's weird. Because most guys, they're on their back, you're not really worried about it. With Paul Craig, everything has to be tight." [1:44]