Ankalaev finishes Guskov in the fifth at UFC Abu Dhabi, calls out Ulberg for the title

Magomed Ankalaev stopped Bogdan Guskov via TKO at 2:41 of round five in the UFC Abu Dhabi main event at Etihad Arena on Saturday. Referee Marc Goddard called it after Ankalaev put Guskov on the canvas for the third time in the fight and unloaded from top position. The former light heavyweight champion moves to 21-2-1 and is now unbeaten in 15 of his last 16 fights. Guskov drops to 18-4-1, his five-fight unbeaten streak ending in the first main event of his career.

It was Ankalaev’s first win since losing the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship to Alex Pereira by first-round TKO at UFC 320 on October 4, 2025. It was also the sort of win that solves half of a problem and creates another. He got the result. He did not get the reception.

Ankalaev

Ankalaev opened as a -550 favorite. Guskov, +410 as a short-notice replacement for the injured Khalil Rountree Jr., had accepted the assignment on ten days’ notice and stepped away from a scheduled rematch with Jan Blachowicz at UFC Belgrade on August 1 to take the main event. The betting lines proved prophetic almost from the opening bell.

Ankalaev outstruck Guskov through the first three rounds without producing a moment that pulled the crowd forward. He closed distance, chained takedowns, and worked from top position. Guskov’s finishing rate, 100 percent across his 18 professional wins, never got a runway on the feet. In the fourth, Ankalaev grounded him and threatened a rear-naked choke. Guskov survived to the horn. In the fifth, Ankalaev repeated the sequence, this time with punches instead of the choke, and Goddard intervened at 2:41.

Yahoo Sports characterised the finish as “strangely timed but merciful.” Bleacher Report called the first four rounds “quite boring” and the finish “pretty forgettable.” Lowkick MMA used the word “snoozefest” in its headline. That framing is not incidental to the story. It will matter when the matchmakers sit down.

Ankalaev did not shy away from the reception. Speaking via a Russian translator in the octagon, he put the pace on his opponent.

“He wasn’t engaging in the striking,” Ankalaev said. “I was trying to find him and he kept getting away.”

The read is defensible. Guskov, a knockout artist by trade, spent much of the fight looking for one clean counter and refusing to commit to sustained volume against a wrestler who was consistently closing on him. On the tape, Ankalaev’s pressure was real and the fight looked the way most Ankalaev fights look. The difference is that his prior style, the same technical identity that carried him to the title, has been rewarded with a belt in the past. On Saturday, working through a five-round main event against a stylistic mismatch, the same profile drew a different response.

The Title Picture

The wider situation Ankalaev walked back into is worth walking through. Pereira, who took the title back from Ankalaev at UFC 320, has since vacated the light heavyweight belt and moved to heavyweight, where he lost the interim title fight to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14. That vacancy opened the way for a new champion. Carlos Ulberg won the vacant belt and is currently recovering from a torn ACL sustained in that fight. His timeline for a return has not been publicly detailed.

Ankalaev’s post-fight message in the octagon named both fighters he wants. He called out Ulberg for a title shot as soon as the champion is medically cleared. He also said he still wants a trilogy with Pereira, this time at heavyweight, where the Brazilian is now competing. Whether the promotion accommodates either or both is a separate question. What is clear is that the No. 1-ranked light heavyweight, back in the win column after nine months off, has a specific matchmaking ask on the record.

For the promotion, the arithmetic is straightforward. Ankalaev is the top-ranked contender at 205 pounds. His résumé still holds up on paper. His ranking is intact. Momentum in the division, however, tends to belong to whoever finished someone loudly the previous month, and Saturday’s finish did not travel that way. A former champion coming off a first-round title loss needed a name to reset the narrative. He grinded a short-notice replacement for 23 minutes instead.

Guskov

The Guskov read is more forgiving. He accepted the fight with ten days’ preparation, walked into a five-round main event against arguably the sport’s most credentialed light heavyweight grappler outside the champion, and lasted into the fifth. The loss is unlikely to derail him at a division where willingness to take short-notice main events tends to be rewarded. His Blachowicz rematch, originally slated for UFC Belgrade on August 1, was scrapped when he took the Ankalaev assignment. The rematch has not been publicly rebooked as of this writing.

He also became the first Uzbek fighter to headline a UFC main event, and his post-fight statement acknowledged the milestone without dressing it as a moral victory. He wanted to win. He did not. He plans to fight again soon.

The next update worth watching in the light heavyweight division is Ulberg’s medical timeline. The next update worth watching for Ankalaev is which of the two callouts, Ulberg for the belt at 205 or Pereira for the trilogy at heavyweight, the promotion decides to move on first.

He walked out of Abu Dhabi with the result he needed. The reviews he did not want will decide which of the two doors opens next.