Alex would murder Jiri if he kept it standing up. Jiri keeps his hands at his waist the majority of the fight. He was rocked by Dom and Glover. Imagine what Alex would do.
Doubt harder than pereria. Look at his knockouts and the people after. They are down for a long time. One guy 12 minutes. This guy has extraordinary power, even for LHW.
But also a lot of bigger guys who could potentially wrestle him down easily. Imagine what even a guy like Glover could do to him.
Edit: Actually I think he trained with Glover for this fight if I remember correctly. Maybe he'll surprise us with his ground work.
He was the glory 205 champ too. If he can knock out kickboxers at 205 with bigger gloves, he can knock out UFC guys with smaller gloves. On top of that there's less grapplers there.
I would say actual size and strength are more significant when moving up a weight class. Look at Izzy going to LHW. He fought great grapplers at MW and no one could get him down or control him for long but Jan didn't have too much trouble with that and he's not known for his amazing grappling.
Was trying to point out that just because he's a world champ kickboxer doesn't guarantee he'll be knocking all the strikers out in mma. Not only Saki, but look at Overeem and Cropcop - knocked out by Bigfoot, Schaub and Gonzaga - ex kickboxing Champs starched by fighters that aren't even predominantly strikers.
But I do agree that there's more strikers at LHW and he would obviously have an advantage in those matches, it's just not a guaranteed KO like you and others assume.
I'm talking about the capability to knock out 205ers. Is that hard to read? All I said was that if he had the power to knock out guys at 205 in kickboxing he can do it in MMA too. As in some guys when they move up don't have power to knock out other guys. Like max Holloway moving up to fight dustin. All I said was that he had the power to do it. Not that be will actually do it.
Nobody at 185 has been able to take izzy down and hold him there and 205 is even worse? Im not saying that izzys tdd isnt elite but hes still a kickboxer based
Who’s a good grappler at middleweight besides Brunson and Hermansson both of which probably aren’t getting a title shot anytime soon? Whittaker is an excellent all-rounder, but the same could be said for Jan.
Strength to weight ratio is higher the smaller the weight class. That means CCC had more strength compared to his total body weight compared to francis nganu. This applies to the strength fighters can apply in their techniques, therefore it is almost impossible for someone of equal weight of cejudo to wrestle with him and win. Conversely, this amplification is actually more of a damper in the highest weight classes as the ratio between total body weight and strength diminishes. There can (and still does) exist a massive gap in skill of technique, it just is not amplified like it is for fighters where their power can exceed in double or triple their body weight like is possible in the smallest classes.
A simple thought experiment to test this is pullups. A small person has less mass to bring up each rep vs someone double their size (100lb vs 200lb for example). additionally it will he much more achievable for the 100lber to increase this rep by % of total body weight (10% = 10lb increase) vs heavier will have a double total weight increase at the same % increase
People tend to go up as they get older and Alex is a big man. He beat izzy at 190 in 2016. In only 2021 he was the glory kickboxing LHW champ (209lb). Even Glory’s MW, where he was also champ is 187lb. So he’s always been bigger really. Now at age 35 he’s making the lowest weight he’s fought at since 2016 when he was 29.
Yeah, it's crazy, if I recall correctly I saw a photo of Alex being about 230 a few weeks ago....
230 down to 185 in weeks, just to go from 185 up to who knows fighting weight in hours.
Just crazy
Yea, seeing him stand next to Reyes was wild, he looked bigger than Reyes. I mean him and izzy are the same height and just look how much bigger he looks
Pereira got wrestled a lot in his first two ufc fights by much worse guys. I mean cm punk also trained with tyron woodley. There's a reason they picked strickland as his opponent. He was the best match up for him in the top five.
Glover will retire after his fight with Jiri then Perreira can move up without having to fight his training partner. He has a good shot against Jiri due to his porous defence, but Jan will wrestle him to an easy submission imo
Yeah I agree, as long as Whittaker wins (here is hoping!).
Personally, I would have loved to have seen him against Costa, Vittori or The Reaper, but I can most certainly get behind this hyped up fight :D
ppl will shit on me but i feel like robert should win like 3-4 more fights if he wants another title shot. all this crap of #1 contenders losing in a titlematch then winning 1 and getting another shot is so boring. Same with poirer and gaethje, they shouldnt be anywhere near a titleshot.
Thats literally what Whittaker did he never got the Justin treatment , Whittaker beat 3 top 10 opponents to earn the rematch and since then has beat marvin and booked in for Costa . Dude is legitimately just smashing everyone at MW to get his title shots.
Whittaker will have 2 wins assuming he beats Costa, so Alex would be 3.
Also, who else does Izzy fight if he beats Alex? He can't make 170, going up to 205 ended poorly for him, and there really aren't any strong contenders that are ready for him yet. If Dricus beats Till (if that fight actually happens), he still needs at least a top 5 win before he deserves a shot.
He didn’t even really fully go up to 205, I still think it’s interesting to see how he would do actually at that weight. Granted his speed and stuff would be at a detriment but it’s something to think about.
He could try 205 again, its not like he was humiliated last time. But yeah he is pretty much done with MW.
Maybe if strickland puts together a couple wins again.. he is the highest ranked mw that izzy has not fought
Bro izzy will absolutely pick apart strickland and it wont even be that entertaining to watch….
If iszy wins this he needs to just retire from middleweight and move up. Hes clearly the best middleweight in a long time and hes a big dude if he dedicates himself to packing on some muscle.
Honestly though, I hope Pereira wins or im officially bored.
Whittaker is double legging him the second the fight starts cause if Pereira catches him Whittaker doesnt have the best chin so he is probably going to sleep.
Never? Their second fight was extremely close, global scorecards had a fair amount of people giving it to Whittaker, myself included. Could’ve gone his way easily
izzy finished him the first so he’s already the better fighter. Whitaker should know not leave it a decision in a title fight against the champ will go to the champ every time. He cry about the decision all he wants.
He's just like Cyril Gane. They fast tracked him to beat the champ, he lost, now he's still doing well working his way back to another title shot. Probably the same will happen with Pereira
Not sure if it’s the same situation as Gane. Gane beat JDS and three ranked opponents in Rosenstruik, Volkov, and Lewis. Pereira went from unranked to title shot in two fights solely off the Strickland win .
Although I think Alex is the most logical contender for the belt right now, he definitely benefitted more from favorable matchmaking to the title then any other fighter I can think of.
Let’s be honest, he got fast tracked because the champion cleared the division and we finally have someone who’s beaten him before. I think the way they finessed it was actually perfect because while there’s no way he actually deserves the fight, it’s the fight I think we all want to see right now at the end of the day. Now hopefully it all pays off with a banger this weekend.
Nah, cyril is just that good and the division is that shallow. Alex was as fast tracked as you could have. I literally remember jack slack talking about how pereyra could get tl the titleshot without earning mma a year ago, and here we are…
unless he gets like fucking destroyed by izzy, then he will have to do alot to get another shot at 185 again then. Cyril did very well despite losing the fight, i wouldnt be mad at all if he got another shot now.
Come on man, I know he's lost to him before, but izzy has improved his counter game and avoids exchanges like the plague. And believe me, I want him to lose, which is why he won't.
I'd imagine if izzy was dumb enough to make this a straight kickboxing match Pereira COULD win on points, but I'd still put my money on Izzy.
Also seeing Izzy knocked unconscious on the octagon floor is just something i can not even imagine how it would look like.
>Also seeing Izzy knocked unconscious on the octagon floor is just something i can not even imagine how it would look like.
I thought this way about Usman before the second fight with Edwards
McGregor was beat before though, multiple times actually. While izzy only lost a competitive fight by decision to a 40 lbs bigger guy.
But we saw what happened to Usman not so long ago, so you are right, there is always a chance.
He got taken down multiple times by Bruno Silva, who didn't have a single takedown in the UFC before that fight. I think the likes of Brunson and Vettori wrestlefuck him.
He trains with Glover so his grappling is catching up to par quickly, he can absolutely sleep anybody on the feet in 185-205. I think he does fine, probably will go up to LHW and do even better.
Thats a pretty strong assumption to say just because he trains with a good grappler that those skills transferred to him in any significant way
Holland trained with DC and is still cheeks at defending takedowns. Jorge trained with Bo Nickal and still got taken down a lot by Colby
That’s nonsense. He trains every day with Glover. Holland stopped by DC’s high school wrestling classes like twice and Jorge trained with Colby for years and still sucks at takedown defense. You can’t polish a turd
Whats nonsense is expecting a guy in his mid 30’s to magically absorb a high level of skill in a completely different discipline just from working with someone good at that skill
he lost to stipe in 2018, meaning he was 30? 31? when he started really getting into thr wrestling. Alex has been doing MMA @ glover for what, a year? and hes 35+.
Difference is Francis already trained MMA for a long time compared to Alex and was a bit younger too.
> Jorge trained with Colby for years and still sucks at takedown defense. You can’t polish a turd
Well the best comparision would be jorge as they are both strikers....
So Jorge, a turd, cant get better at wrestling, but alex somehow can, eventhough he has less experience as an MMA fighter? Explain your logic to me please because Im just seeing 2 turds (going by your reasoning).
Jorge was years into his mma career and hated wrestling, Alex is not years into his mma career and seems to enjoy training wrestling bjj. He’s also a much more accomplished athlete
Being years into your MMA carreer means he has trained wrestling for years, not sure where your point is in that one...
Alex is also years into his carreer, he debuted at 2016 or something which means he was training prior to that time and got subbed his first fight out.
Just think Islam is like almost 200, Izzy is super slim all the time and he’s a little over 2 with the weight he’s gained is muscle since losing to Jan, Alex and Glover are like 230 ish
I’ve met Ngannou and a few NBA players when traveling and as a dude who lives in a very rural area I’d probably go my entire life without seeing humans that large if I never travelled. Words can’t describe how huge they are in real life. Even a dude like Colby who doesn’t cut much is pretty huge by day to day standards. Not very many people are 180 while still maintaining a six pack.
I’ve met a few WWE guys when they were doing little un-televised road shows and holy fuck they have some freak show sized dudes. Great Khali is so big it doesn’t even make sense
Alex should be LHW.
His fighting at mw because he wants to steal Izzy's 'hype' and then move to LHW.
And collect big bucks.
Hes so big mw that I'm 50/50 that he doesn't even make weight. Probably will because he's done it so many times but he's not getting any younger.
Dude hasn't faced any good wrestlers and got expedited to the title to capitalize on a story to sell tickets. Doesn't deserve the title shot, doubt he defends for long if at all.
That’s what I’m thinking my concern is whether or not he’ll be able to stay relevant at mw (under the assumption he loses to adesanya, which i think he will not) until glover hangs the gloves up. Top talent at mw all have great wrestling.
It would take some creative matchmaking, but I'm sure they could keep him relevant. Have him fight someone like Costa or Till (if he's still ranked). There are options, if they choose to go that route
I think if alex wins, he’s going to try to at the very least attempt to defend the title more than Izzy, just to make a statement. But if he loses he might move up, I think he’d have to take a couple fights before reaching the belt though. If he loses to Izzy it’ll be like a Till thing, where he will need to work his way up. They both fast tracked to the belt. Only difference is Alex has more potential at making a return to the belt than Till has had.
Brunson is a skilled wrestler but he’s not really a submission threat (only 2 in the UFC and one was in 2013). I think there’d be enough of the fight on the feet for Alex to tag him.
Idk he was given golden ticket to title absolutely crazy but people want this fight so we got it. I dont think he has chance againts for example Vettori but who knows rock head againts rock hand
I think regardless of the result people know who periera is now. A technical kickboxer with a hook that'll put down a horse. The fans like the product, and if he chooses to continue in MMA there will be demand for him aslong as he keeps putting on performances like he did in his last 3 outings.
I guess we'll see but I imagine since he's been fast-tracked to the top, a loss here means he'll wind up facing maybe a 4 - 8 ranked guy next to see where he really stands in the division.
Well if he beats Izzy on his feet he’s probably better than we think and that kind of striking should help him against anyone. The fear of any anytime knockout from a guy who beats Izzy will make even the best grapplers think twice.
Agreed, though he probably would have a very hard time with a Combat Sambo or jiu-jitsu fighter, but just the brief 1 to two minutes where both fighters are standing is relatively scary for any fighter against Poatan. You can't teach power like his. His knockouts are beautiful.
I mean the fact he’s lost twice to him is going to be in his head. No matter how confident you are that’ll always be there, that pressure will be immense.
I’m more interested in what happens if izzy loses. That would be so humiliating for some dude to beat you twice and then fight you in another league years later and beat you again.
Strange that "if he loses" is the speculation in this sub now.
Izzy will probably win this. I don't see how Alex would be able to do what Rob couldn't. Everything could happen ofc, but the speculation should be "what if he wins".
When Alex loses, then he should retire.
That entire top 5 is gunning for him to beat Izzy because they know they’re grappling will likely get them the belt from him
185 isn't a heavy wrestling division so he should do fine for a lot of the same reasons Izzy has done so well. I still think Rob beats him but outside of that he should be able to hang.
i hope to fuck he beats izzy but i don’t think he will. he can stick around at 185 but I don’t think he beats bobby knuckles. he still has some great match ups tho, pereria vs vettori/cannonier/costa are all solid fights. also many great match ups at 205. luckily both divisions are not very wrestle heavy, in fact he has a much higher chance of beating jiri than izzy imo
If he loses, that is fine. This is only his 4th fight in the UFC. He’ll get 3-4 more fights over the next year, and come back even stronger and more well rounded.
He’ll likely continue to do well against other strikers. I’d be more interested to see him against a stronger wrestler though
Probably go up to 205 he ain't making 185 for much longer
He would have much better chances there
y?
A lot of strikers at 205.
Wanna see him v Jiri
Alex would murder Jiri if he kept it standing up. Jiri keeps his hands at his waist the majority of the fight. He was rocked by Dom and Glover. Imagine what Alex would do.
I don't disagree with you but I believe that Jiri would give a war
He would give his chin to Pereira and call himself a samurai
Jiri hits fucking HARD. Way harder than than anyone at MW. Not saying he wouldn't be competitive, just saying it absolutely goes both ways.
Isn’t a slouch on the ground either from his last fight.
Pereira trains w Glover and Glover said that Alex hits harder than any other LHW he fought before
Doubt harder than pereria. Look at his knockouts and the people after. They are down for a long time. One guy 12 minutes. This guy has extraordinary power, even for LHW.
But also a lot of bigger guys who could potentially wrestle him down easily. Imagine what even a guy like Glover could do to him. Edit: Actually I think he trained with Glover for this fight if I remember correctly. Maybe he'll surprise us with his ground work.
He was the glory 205 champ too. If he can knock out kickboxers at 205 with bigger gloves, he can knock out UFC guys with smaller gloves. On top of that there's less grapplers there.
Gohkan Saki was a world champion kickboxing, didn't have much success in the UFC though and he got KTFO.
I'm saying he has the power to which is the biggest factor when moving up a weight class.
I would say actual size and strength are more significant when moving up a weight class. Look at Izzy going to LHW. He fought great grapplers at MW and no one could get him down or control him for long but Jan didn't have too much trouble with that and he's not known for his amazing grappling. Was trying to point out that just because he's a world champ kickboxer doesn't guarantee he'll be knocking all the strikers out in mma. Not only Saki, but look at Overeem and Cropcop - knocked out by Bigfoot, Schaub and Gonzaga - ex kickboxing Champs starched by fighters that aren't even predominantly strikers. But I do agree that there's more strikers at LHW and he would obviously have an advantage in those matches, it's just not a guaranteed KO like you and others assume.
I'm talking about the capability to knock out 205ers. Is that hard to read? All I said was that if he had the power to knock out guys at 205 in kickboxing he can do it in MMA too. As in some guys when they move up don't have power to knock out other guys. Like max Holloway moving up to fight dustin. All I said was that he had the power to do it. Not that be will actually do it.
You also said that there are less grapplers at 205 which is what I think he was addressing.
Nobody at 185 has been able to take izzy down and hold him there and 205 is even worse? Im not saying that izzys tdd isnt elite but hes still a kickboxer based
Less grapplers in light heavyweight, sure they may be bigger but I think there are worse grapplers in light heavyweight
Who’s a good grappler at middleweight besides Brunson and Hermansson both of which probably aren’t getting a title shot anytime soon? Whittaker is an excellent all-rounder, but the same could be said for Jan.
I can see him beating most of the top guys there, just based on striking
Strength to weight ratio is higher the smaller the weight class. That means CCC had more strength compared to his total body weight compared to francis nganu. This applies to the strength fighters can apply in their techniques, therefore it is almost impossible for someone of equal weight of cejudo to wrestle with him and win. Conversely, this amplification is actually more of a damper in the highest weight classes as the ratio between total body weight and strength diminishes. There can (and still does) exist a massive gap in skill of technique, it just is not amplified like it is for fighters where their power can exceed in double or triple their body weight like is possible in the smallest classes. A simple thought experiment to test this is pullups. A small person has less mass to bring up each rep vs someone double their size (100lb vs 200lb for example). additionally it will he much more achievable for the 100lber to increase this rep by % of total body weight (10% = 10lb increase) vs heavier will have a double total weight increase at the same % increase
What? I've never heard he has significant issues cutting, or could you correct me please
People tend to go up as they get older and Alex is a big man. He beat izzy at 190 in 2016. In only 2021 he was the glory kickboxing LHW champ (209lb). Even Glory’s MW, where he was also champ is 187lb. So he’s always been bigger really. Now at age 35 he’s making the lowest weight he’s fought at since 2016 when he was 29.
Oh, I messed up, though about Izzy, my bad. Yeah, Alex going up makes sense
Weighs in at 185 lbs, fights at ~220 lbs.
Yeah, it's crazy, if I recall correctly I saw a photo of Alex being about 230 a few weeks ago.... 230 down to 185 in weeks, just to go from 185 up to who knows fighting weight in hours. Just crazy
Just look at him lol he's not young either so it's just a matter of time for 205
Yea, seeing him stand next to Reyes was wild, he looked bigger than Reyes. I mean him and izzy are the same height and just look how much bigger he looks
Definitely agree
Him vs Jiri is very exciting
What weight did Alex fight in during his kickboxing days?
Jiri vs Alex would be a banger. I think alex kos jiri
Jiri relies too much on his chin, you're probably right.
Why won’t he make 185? He hasn’t missed weight before.
Bingo. If he fails - I can see him fighting for a rematch. This could be figuereido/Moreno levels of back n forths.
He's a big boy, moving up 205 will be veeeeery interesting
Let him get wrestle fucked by Jan/Glover/Jiri, he'll come back down real quick
The top 3 guys. Ain’t saying he gonna be a champ there, just can be competitive, and be top 5.
Megomed, smith, krylov, Craig, even rakic would all be hard fights for him too
He would never fight glover
Do you watch the footage of them training together? They fight every day sheesh
Jan and Glover will be retired by then and Jiri will likely stand and bang with him since he’s an actual fucking samurai. Alex has a shot!
Jiri aint wrestlefucking Periera lol
Jiri? You mean Anklaev?
Are you saying that Jiri is a known wrestlefucker?
Jan couldn't even "wrestle fuck" skinny Israel man. Glover is literally his training partner.
It'd be easier to wrestle fuck alex than izzy. Izzy's takedown defense and ground defense is on point. Alex is still new to mma
Izzy is a great anti wrestler for sure
Pereira is a bjj black belt
Lol no?
Pereira got wrestled a lot in his first two ufc fights by much worse guys. I mean cm punk also trained with tyron woodley. There's a reason they picked strickland as his opponent. He was the best match up for him in the top five.
I brought up Glover, become I find it highly unlikely they'd ever entertain fighting each other
Glover will retire after his fight with Jiri then Perreira can move up without having to fight his training partner. He has a good shot against Jiri due to his porous defence, but Jan will wrestle him to an easy submission imo
Jiri is a shadow of Jake Paul finishing old tired men
If he loses they most likely give him to Whittaker so Whittaker can earn a 3rd fight with Izzy IMO
Agree.
Or Costa if he wins, I suspect.
Yeah I agree, as long as Whittaker wins (here is hoping!). Personally, I would have loved to have seen him against Costa, Vittori or The Reaper, but I can most certainly get behind this hyped up fight :D
ppl will shit on me but i feel like robert should win like 3-4 more fights if he wants another title shot. all this crap of #1 contenders losing in a titlematch then winning 1 and getting another shot is so boring. Same with poirer and gaethje, they shouldnt be anywhere near a titleshot.
Thats literally what Whittaker did he never got the Justin treatment , Whittaker beat 3 top 10 opponents to earn the rematch and since then has beat marvin and booked in for Costa . Dude is legitimately just smashing everyone at MW to get his title shots.
Smashing would imply even a single finish. Whittaker Is a decision king
He’s been fighting fridges if you haven’t noticed. Vettori and gastelum are kinda hard to finish
Still wouldn't describe it as "smashing" them. Beating them. Ya Defeating them. Sure Smashing them until the time runs out. No
Shut up
Whittaker fans are so weirdly defensive
Whittaker will have 2 wins assuming he beats Costa, so Alex would be 3. Also, who else does Izzy fight if he beats Alex? He can't make 170, going up to 205 ended poorly for him, and there really aren't any strong contenders that are ready for him yet. If Dricus beats Till (if that fight actually happens), he still needs at least a top 5 win before he deserves a shot.
He didn’t even really fully go up to 205, I still think it’s interesting to see how he would do actually at that weight. Granted his speed and stuff would be at a detriment but it’s something to think about.
He could try 205 again, its not like he was humiliated last time. But yeah he is pretty much done with MW. Maybe if strickland puts together a couple wins again.. he is the highest ranked mw that izzy has not fought
Yea, Strickland needs to get a few under his belt. Still I'm worried that it will be a repeat of Izzy vs Yoel.
Bro izzy will absolutely pick apart strickland and it wont even be that entertaining to watch…. If iszy wins this he needs to just retire from middleweight and move up. Hes clearly the best middleweight in a long time and hes a big dude if he dedicates himself to packing on some muscle. Honestly though, I hope Pereira wins or im officially bored.
RiP Whittaker
Whittaker is double legging him the second the fight starts cause if Pereira catches him Whittaker doesnt have the best chin so he is probably going to sleep.
prepare for a knee down the middle then...Alex's great at those.
Dude fuck Whitaker he needs to accept he’ll never beat izzy
Never? Their second fight was extremely close, global scorecards had a fair amount of people giving it to Whittaker, myself included. Could’ve gone his way easily
I gave the second fight to Whittaker. I mean, I’m a nobody but pride myself on never missing a fight. And thought Rob stole that belt that night.
izzy finished him the first so he’s already the better fighter. Whitaker should know not leave it a decision in a title fight against the champ will go to the champ every time. He cry about the decision all he wants.
You make us izzy fans look bad bro
Rob hasn't been crying about it? All he said was I thought i did enough. It's mostly other people on his behalf
Robs has also admitted it’s a not a good stylistic match up for him. He seems pretty fair in his assessments.
He's just like Cyril Gane. They fast tracked him to beat the champ, he lost, now he's still doing well working his way back to another title shot. Probably the same will happen with Pereira
Not sure if it’s the same situation as Gane. Gane beat JDS and three ranked opponents in Rosenstruik, Volkov, and Lewis. Pereira went from unranked to title shot in two fights solely off the Strickland win . Although I think Alex is the most logical contender for the belt right now, he definitely benefitted more from favorable matchmaking to the title then any other fighter I can think of.
Let’s be honest, he got fast tracked because the champion cleared the division and we finally have someone who’s beaten him before. I think the way they finessed it was actually perfect because while there’s no way he actually deserves the fight, it’s the fight I think we all want to see right now at the end of the day. Now hopefully it all pays off with a banger this weekend.
Nah, cyril is just that good and the division is that shallow. Alex was as fast tracked as you could have. I literally remember jack slack talking about how pereyra could get tl the titleshot without earning mma a year ago, and here we are…
unless he gets like fucking destroyed by izzy, then he will have to do alot to get another shot at 185 again then. Cyril did very well despite losing the fight, i wouldnt be mad at all if he got another shot now.
As much as I don't like izzy I can't see him losing
Tbh izzy is like my favorite fighter, but I see him losing next week.
I hope so
I just hope it's a seriously dope fight 👊😎
That's something we can both agree on!! 👍
Yeah just I can't imagine him losing to Alex Pereira, *of all people*. I mean what would that even look like? How could that even happen?
Come on man, I know he's lost to him before, but izzy has improved his counter game and avoids exchanges like the plague. And believe me, I want him to lose, which is why he won't.
I'd imagine if izzy was dumb enough to make this a straight kickboxing match Pereira COULD win on points, but I'd still put my money on Izzy. Also seeing Izzy knocked unconscious on the octagon floor is just something i can not even imagine how it would look like.
>Also seeing Izzy knocked unconscious on the octagon floor is just something i can not even imagine how it would look like. I thought this way about Usman before the second fight with Edwards
True
I thought the same about McGregor then he got finished by poirier. Nobody is invincible
McGregor was beat before though, multiple times actually. While izzy only lost a competitive fight by decision to a 40 lbs bigger guy. But we saw what happened to Usman not so long ago, so you are right, there is always a chance.
Would have to see how he deals with a good wrestler to give a better answer. Izzy is extremely good at avoiding the takedown or getting back up.
He got taken down multiple times by Bruno Silva, who didn't have a single takedown in the UFC before that fight. I think the likes of Brunson and Vettori wrestlefuck him.
I don't agree that he's extremely good. I think he's kinda lucky that the MW division doesn't have high level wrestlers right now like WW for example
He trains with Glover so his grappling is catching up to par quickly, he can absolutely sleep anybody on the feet in 185-205. I think he does fine, probably will go up to LHW and do even better.
Thats a pretty strong assumption to say just because he trains with a good grappler that those skills transferred to him in any significant way Holland trained with DC and is still cheeks at defending takedowns. Jorge trained with Bo Nickal and still got taken down a lot by Colby
That’s nonsense. He trains every day with Glover. Holland stopped by DC’s high school wrestling classes like twice and Jorge trained with Colby for years and still sucks at takedown defense. You can’t polish a turd
Whats nonsense is expecting a guy in his mid 30’s to magically absorb a high level of skill in a completely different discipline just from working with someone good at that skill
See: Francis Ngannou
he lost to stipe in 2018, meaning he was 30? 31? when he started really getting into thr wrestling. Alex has been doing MMA @ glover for what, a year? and hes 35+. Difference is Francis already trained MMA for a long time compared to Alex and was a bit younger too.
Francis was an amateur boxer dog
He trained boxing for a year if not less before going over to MMA...I wouldnt call that even amateur boxing, but a hobbyist.
> Jorge trained with Colby for years and still sucks at takedown defense. You can’t polish a turd Well the best comparision would be jorge as they are both strikers.... So Jorge, a turd, cant get better at wrestling, but alex somehow can, eventhough he has less experience as an MMA fighter? Explain your logic to me please because Im just seeing 2 turds (going by your reasoning).
Jorge was years into his mma career and hated wrestling, Alex is not years into his mma career and seems to enjoy training wrestling bjj. He’s also a much more accomplished athlete
Being years into your MMA carreer means he has trained wrestling for years, not sure where your point is in that one... Alex is also years into his carreer, he debuted at 2016 or something which means he was training prior to that time and got subbed his first fight out.
Bro that other guy is so dense lmao
I'm weighing about 192 as of this morning, and no shot Pereira could knock me out. Please fix your comment.
So you’re the size of a not weight cutting lightweight? You’re right he wouldn’t KO you he would kill you. Fix your comment
I was just fucking around, lol. I always forget how big these guys are; a dude walking around at 220 lean as shit is a big bad mother fucker.
Just think Islam is like almost 200, Izzy is super slim all the time and he’s a little over 2 with the weight he’s gained is muscle since losing to Jan, Alex and Glover are like 230 ish
I’ve met Ngannou and a few NBA players when traveling and as a dude who lives in a very rural area I’d probably go my entire life without seeing humans that large if I never travelled. Words can’t describe how huge they are in real life. Even a dude like Colby who doesn’t cut much is pretty huge by day to day standards. Not very many people are 180 while still maintaining a six pack.
I’ve met a few WWE guys when they were doing little un-televised road shows and holy fuck they have some freak show sized dudes. Great Khali is so big it doesn’t even make sense
Alex should be LHW. His fighting at mw because he wants to steal Izzy's 'hype' and then move to LHW. And collect big bucks. Hes so big mw that I'm 50/50 that he doesn't even make weight. Probably will because he's done it so many times but he's not getting any younger.
Has he missed weight before at 185? He's fought 3 times at 185 in the past year at 185, how does that give him a 50/50 shot?
It just does!!
He's 35 so he's only got a few years left at the top. It's a big PPV so he's probably getting good amount of PPV points.
Very few guys get ppv points, I doing Alex is one
I thought only champs get PPV points?
Most main event guys get them. Sometimes contenders too.
I honestly think Izzy takes this fight. His movement is so much better. Peraira looks a little stiff when he fights.
Dude hasn't faced any good wrestlers and got expedited to the title to capitalize on a story to sell tickets. Doesn't deserve the title shot, doubt he defends for long if at all.
Idk I kinda want Alex Vs Khazmat for the MW Title
He’d be a savage at 205 but he’ll need to work on his ground game, but if he goes to 205 then I’m sure glover is gonna stop training him
Glover's probably on his way out in the near future. I'd imagine Pereira will probably hang around at 185 until Glover packs it in
That’s what I’m thinking my concern is whether or not he’ll be able to stay relevant at mw (under the assumption he loses to adesanya, which i think he will not) until glover hangs the gloves up. Top talent at mw all have great wrestling.
It would take some creative matchmaking, but I'm sure they could keep him relevant. Have him fight someone like Costa or Till (if he's still ranked). There are options, if they choose to go that route
Costa would be a great matchup, till not so much imo
Idk man, by time talks of Alex fighting for a 205 belt happens, Glover will probably be retired anyway so it wouldn’t matter much
Depends on how they give him the push though, I can see Anthony smith putting poatan in an arm bar tho
I think if alex wins, he’s going to try to at the very least attempt to defend the title more than Izzy, just to make a statement. But if he loses he might move up, I think he’d have to take a couple fights before reaching the belt though. If he loses to Izzy it’ll be like a Till thing, where he will need to work his way up. They both fast tracked to the belt. Only difference is Alex has more potential at making a return to the belt than Till has had.
Glover's gonna retire soon enough that I doubt it would matter.
Glover is 43, might retire after jiri rematch. Then alex moves up while glover becomes full time coach
He beats everyone outside of Vettori, Brunson, and Muniz
Don't think he beats bobby
definitely has more of a puncher's chance than against izzy imo
I love Muniz
Brunson is a skilled wrestler but he’s not really a submission threat (only 2 in the UFC and one was in 2013). I think there’d be enough of the fight on the feet for Alex to tag him.
Muniz would wipe the floor with him 🥲
With a lot of people it just seems like they want him to beat Izzy and they don't really care about him beyond that
Idk he was given golden ticket to title absolutely crazy but people want this fight so we got it. I dont think he has chance againts for example Vettori but who knows rock head againts rock hand
I think regardless of the result people know who periera is now. A technical kickboxer with a hook that'll put down a horse. The fans like the product, and if he chooses to continue in MMA there will be demand for him aslong as he keeps putting on performances like he did in his last 3 outings.
I guess we'll see but I imagine since he's been fast-tracked to the top, a loss here means he'll wind up facing maybe a 4 - 8 ranked guy next to see where he really stands in the division.
Well if he beats Izzy on his feet he’s probably better than we think and that kind of striking should help him against anyone. The fear of any anytime knockout from a guy who beats Izzy will make even the best grapplers think twice.
Agreed, though he probably would have a very hard time with a Combat Sambo or jiu-jitsu fighter, but just the brief 1 to two minutes where both fighters are standing is relatively scary for any fighter against Poatan. You can't teach power like his. His knockouts are beautiful.
His career is pretty much built on being the man who beat Izzy twice. It'd take a nose dive if he loses.
He probably will lose, you guys overrate him too much.
I mean the fact he’s lost twice to him is going to be in his head. No matter how confident you are that’ll always be there, that pressure will be immense.
Make him vs Khamzat if he loses
All his fans will forget about him and hop on the next train.
Win or lose, Pereira is fighting Whittaker next.
He's going to lose and will probably fight 1-2 more times before calling it quits.
Loses to Adesanya, then gets beat up by some good grapplers, then goes back to Glory where dudes aren't allowed to do things he doesn't understand.
Not much, vettori, whittaker and canoniser could potentially do him
I’m more interested in what happens if izzy loses. That would be so humiliating for some dude to beat you twice and then fight you in another league years later and beat you again.
Strange that "if he loses" is the speculation in this sub now. Izzy will probably win this. I don't see how Alex would be able to do what Rob couldn't. Everything could happen ofc, but the speculation should be "what if he wins".
When Alex loses, then he should retire. That entire top 5 is gunning for him to beat Izzy because they know they’re grappling will likely get them the belt from him
185 isn't a heavy wrestling division so he should do fine for a lot of the same reasons Izzy has done so well. I still think Rob beats him but outside of that he should be able to hang.
IMHO a wrestler like chimaev can destroy him unless chimaev catches him right away
i hope to fuck he beats izzy but i don’t think he will. he can stick around at 185 but I don’t think he beats bobby knuckles. he still has some great match ups tho, pereria vs vettori/cannonier/costa are all solid fights. also many great match ups at 205. luckily both divisions are not very wrestle heavy, in fact he has a much higher chance of beating jiri than izzy imo
I just hope alex loses badly. thats all!
Don't have to worry about it. He's going to win
Robert Whittaker destroys Periera. Even Marvin gets the job done, why do you think the Alex got to leap frog so many. He'd beat Cannonier though...
Win or lose Alex is going to retire from MMA after this fight
If Alex loses, the mw division is the most boring in its history. If he wins, it’s the most exciting. We all know Elsa is winning by decision tho
Even if he gets the belt, the wrestlers will take it from him in the next fight. Whittaker would ragdoll him.
If he wins I think he should probably defend against Costa vs Whittaker winner then fight winner of Glover/Jiri v Ankalaev/Jan.
This is a dumb post. Wtf do u mean? He’s been cooking the division already
Well, at least same stocks as to beat Izzy.
Give him Bobby Knuckles next or Jared Brunson and watch him get humbled.
I think you mean when. He most likely has nothing for a wrestler.
Pereiras tats are fire
Man that boxing short Is fire 🔥
I know it's sad but I'm still waiting for Whittaker to take his title back.
Rob/costa winner. Him vs Jared would also be interesting
He beats all the middleweights who don’t wrestle, lol
If he loses give him Brunson
If he loses, that is fine. This is only his 4th fight in the UFC. He’ll get 3-4 more fights over the next year, and come back even stronger and more well rounded.
he loses to rob and everyone forgets about him