Chael Sonnen believes the UFC made a few oversights in booking the next light heavyweight title fight.
Alex Pereira’s 205-pound belt will be up for grabs in Saturday’s UFC 327 main event at Miami’s Kaseya Center.
After returning to the throne last October, ‘Poatan’ will be vacating ahead of a move up to heavyweight. With that, Jiri Prochazka will battle Carlos Ulberg for the right to succeed the Brazilian star.
According to ‘The Bad Guy’, however, that was not the right matchup to make.
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Chael Sonnen criticizes Magomed Ankalaev’s omission from the UFC 327 light heavyweight title fight
Sonnen recently gave his take on Saturday’s main event in ‘The Magic City’, and he disputed the notion that Ulberg and Prochazka were the most deserving of the two vacant title fight slots.
The former title challenger believes the last man to be unseated from the light heavyweight mountaintop inside the Octagon, Ankalaev, should have been a shoo-in for one half of the UFC 327 matchup.
As for the other, Sonnen mentioned Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree Jr. as names whose absence from the April 11 event he cannot explain.
“Ulberg vs Jiri doesn’t draw flies,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “The constant there is Ulberg. And by the way, what is he doing here?
“This fight very clearly belongs to Ankalaev. If Ankalaev’s hurt… I would like to know about it. Ankalaev is not only 1-1 against Pereira, he is the only of the bunch to beat Pereira and also the only one of the bunch who isn’t even discussed to be in the title fight.
“I have no idea why we have a world title fight at 205 pounds that does not involve the most exciting 205-pounder, which is Rountree, the most compelling 205-pounder, which is Jamahal, or the most decorated 205-pounder, which is Ankalaev.
“The storyline on this fight is so poor that nobody has even called out that we don’t have the right guy,” he continued. “As a matter of fact, neither guy is the right guy! We have two wrong guys!”
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Who’s leaving #UFC327 with a win? [ B2YB @Bet365_US ] pic.twitter.com/RJ3NptlZv2— UFC (@ufc) April 8, 2026
Ankalaev’s knockout loss to Pereira last October brought a quick end to his light heavyweight title reign, which had commenced seven months…
2026-04-10 04:59:00
