Thiago vs Ankalaev: prediction and bets on UFC Apex, March 13, 2022

Match info

On March 12, the next UFC Fight Night 203 tournament will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada (USA). In the main fight of the evening, Brazilian Thiago Santos will meet Russian Magomed Ankalaev at 6.30 p.m. local time (March 13 at 5:30 a.m. Moscow time) at the UFC Apex. The current form of Santos Thiago was an elite fighter not so long ago, without any exaggeration, and even fought for the title with Jon Jones. We will boldly say – he won that fight, but the judges decided otherwise. Then the period of injuries and operations began for the Brazilian, and he returned to the cage as a completely different fighter. He lost to Glover Teixeira and Aleksandar Rakić, but more importantly, he didn’t resemble himself. However, in October last year, Thiago had the skills to win a decision against Johnny Walker, but a little later it turned out that defeating his compatriot wasn’t such a big achievement (he had 4 losses in his last 5 fights). Thiago will certainly try to surprise Ankalaev, and that eventual victory will bring him closer to the title again. The current form of Ankalaev In his entire career, Ankalaev lost only in one fight. Ankalaev was in upper hand over Paul Craig, did what he wanted with him, and had a couple of opportunities to finish him off. But after the signal sounded about the last 10 seconds of the fight, Craig suddenly decided to “do or die” and by some miracle, he threw a triangle choke and forced the Russian to bang the floor. Only one second remained until the end of the battle. An all-time record, perhaps. But after this disgrace, Ankalaev fully rehabilitated himself, he took 7 victories in a row (of which 4 were early) and rose to 6th place in the ranking. Right now, he’s the strongest Russian fighter in the light heavyweight category, although Vadim Nemkov, of course, will argue. In his previous fight, last October, Ankalaev beat Volkan Özdemir on points. Comparison

Meeting statistics

The upcoming fight will take place in the light heavyweight category. Magomed Ankalaev is ranked 6th in the official ranking of UFC contenders in his division, Thiago Santos is 5th. The Russian fighter is a big favorite in odds of bookmakers with betting bonuses.

Match analytics

Maybe Ankalaev isn’t a bright fighter, but he’s smart. He’s well aware that Thiago’s chances of winning are only in the standing position, so he’s unlikely to want to accept an open fight. He simply doesn’t need it, he can easily transfer the Brazilian to the ground, where he’ll have an overwhelming advantage. The Russian fans are also optimistic about the fact that the Brazilian has recently had frank problems with functional training. On 4raBet, the odds for Ankalaev’s victory are small, so opt for a different market here, such as the total number of rounds over 3.5 with odds of 1.85.