He did that. He fought long, smart, disciplined, well, he had too against someone like Alex. Not sure which part of of his arsenal is strongest, but Anks might be his wrestling and his constant willingness to use it, to mix it up. When you can’t get the chance to mix things up like he clearly couldn’t, he had to rely on his striking against the most dangerous LHW ever. I’m sure he would’ve had the same mentality going into the rematch.
I noticed something was off with Pereira in the first fight. He didn’t look comfortable or confident and when it was revealed later that he had a fractured shin bone, broken hand and norovirus it made complete sense. I take nothing away from Anks performance though, he didn’t great, but Alex put that right in the rematch.