Magomed Alibulatovich Ankalaev (Магоме́д Алибула́тович Анкала́ев; born 2 June 1992) is a Russian professional mixed martial artist.
He currently competes in the Light Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
As of November 14, 2023, he is #3 in the UFC light heavyweight rankings.
Ankalaev is the former Light heavyweight champion of World Fighting Championship Akhmat.
Ankalaev was born on June 2, 1992, in Makhachkala, Russia in a family of Avar descent.
Ankalaev first began training in Greco-Roman Wrestling for one year whilst he was a student at the Dagestan State University, where he graduated in the sport faculty.
At that time he also competed in combat sambo, where he was honoured with the title of Master of Sports in the discipline.
Ankalaev was compelled at the idea of transitioning to MMA, because of the similarity between MMA and combat sambo.
Ankalaev then became the Russian and World champion in amateur MMA.
2013
In December 2013, in the WMMAA's World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, Ankalaev won the gold medal, beating Kazakhstani Rustam Malaev in the finals.
2014
In June 2014, at the Russian MMA Championship, Ankalaev ended up beating two of Fedor Emelianenko's students, Valentin Moldavsky in semi-final, and Vadim Nemkov in the finals; thereby qualifying for the WMMAA Championship in Minsk, Belarus, in September of the same year.
He went on to win the silver medal.
Ankalaev made his professional debut on 18 January 2014, at Oplot Challenge 96, where he beat Vasily Babich of Ukraine by majority decision.
2015
Ankalaev was also named the 2015 Mixed Martial Artist of Russia by the Russian MMA federation.
Ankalaev is a devout Muslim.
In March 2015, Ankalaev won the finals of the MMA Cup of Dagestan, by beating Muslim Magomedov.
Barely a month later, Magomed Ankalaev won the Russian Cup, by again beating his rival, Muslim Magomedov in the final.
One month later, at the Russian MMA Championship, Ankalaev beat his old rival Valentin Moldavsky via split decision in the final, to win the gold medal.
In November 2015, Ankalaev won the gold medal in the WMMAA World Championship held in Prague, Czech Republic.
In December 2015, Anakalaev wins MMA Super Cup of Russia, by beating Nadyr Bulkadarov in the pro exhibition fight.
2016
He is also the winner of 2016 Akhmat FC Light Heavyweight Grand Prix.
In May 2016, Anakalaev won the Russian MMA Championship, by beating Magomed Shakhrudinov in tourney finals.
In November of the same year, Ankalaev won the Combat Sambo Cup of Dagestan, and the gold medal in the WMMAA Championship a few weeks later, in Macau, China.
At Akhmat FC he was the winner 2016 Akhmat FC Light Heavyweight Grand Prix.
2017
After winning the Chechen MMA promotion World Fighting Championship Akhmat's world title he signed with the UFC in October 2017.
2018
Ankalaev made his promotional debut against Paul Craig in March 2018 at UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Volkov.
Ankalaev dominated the fight for the majority of the bout, winning with clean striking, takedowns and top control; Ankalaev had Craig badly hurt with a body kick in the first round.
However, in the last five seconds of round three, Craig caught Ankalaev with a triangle choke, giving him his first professional loss at exactly 4:59 of round three.
Rebounding from this loss, Ankalaev was scheduled to fight Marcin Prachnio on September 15, 2018, at UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Oleinik.
After a slow start, Ankalaev landed a right hook counter that knocked down Prachnio, who then got up, only to then be hit with a head kick and follow up punch which rendered him unconscious.
The knockout earned Ankalaev his first UFC win and Performance of the Night award.
2019
Ankalaev was expected to face Darko Stošić on February 23, 2019, at UFC Fight Night 145.
However, Stošić pulled out of the fight on January 23 citing injury.
