The bad blood between Magomed Ankalaev and Alex Pereira keeps getting thicker as UFC 320 draws closer. Pereira’s never been one to bite his tongue, and he’s been laying into the Dagestani fighter for a while now. First, he called Ankalaev a weak champion. Then he accused him of ducking real competition at the UFC Performance Institute. Now, Pereira’s gone after him in a whole new way, suggesting Ankalaev’s just a puppet with Manager Ali Abdelaziz pulling the strings.

Pereira went to social media with a more than obvious jab, posting a picture of Ankalaev’s manager, Abdelaziz, as a puppet master. The implication was clear: Pereira does not think Ankalaev calls his own shots.

It’s now a personal jab that surpasses the typical banter one would expect in a build-up to a fight; it raises the

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