Alex Pereira Says Magomed Ankalaev's Scared Ahead Of Rematch At UFC 320

Alex Pereira says Magomed Ankalaev's day of reckoning is coming ... where the UFC champ will be forced to pay for running his mouth!

"There's definitely a rivalry. [Ankalaev's] said a lot and now he's got to face it," Poatan told us this week, adding ... "And yeah, he definitely looks like he's a little bit scared."

Pereira and Ankalaev's UFC 320 rematch, which is exactly one week away, already had fans pumped ... but things were ratcheted up even more this week when the fighters got into a verbal dust-up at the UFC's Performance Institute.

Despite a language barrier, Alex and Magomed still managed to verbally spar, using a translate app to talk s*** to one another!

Pereira, needless to say, wants to avenge his March loss and win his light heavyweight belt back, but he's intent on not pressing too hard, and making a fight-changing mistake.

"In the end, we have to really focus on what it is that we got to do. And we can't let those things affect us. And we can't take those things to heart because you might drift away from the strategy. So you've got to focus on what you've got to do."

Of course, Ankalaev won their first fight by unanimous decision ... but Pereira was battling sickness and injury.

Alex says he's now healthy, and he's fully ready to go!

"I'm at my greatest moment right now. I had some time to train and heal some injuries and take care of some stuff. And I think it's going to be a war."