It has been over a week since Alex Pereira defeated Israel Adesanya to become the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. Yet, the buzz around it refuses to die down.
The truth of the matter is, the second half of this year delivered immensely, as per being an MMA fan. After Jiri Prochazka’s sensational tide-turning submission in his title bout against Glover Teixeira, fans did not expect the upcoming PPVs to scale similar heights. However, we got at least two title fights that matched the UFC 275 card – that is, namely, the Leon Edwards vs Kamaru Usman fight, and the Alex Pereira vs Israel Adesanya fight.
Recently, Sean O’Malley went on the Joe Rogan Experience, and the two discussed this fight in detail. Joe Rogan said this about Alex Pereira’s performance in the fight – “The left hook is murderous and he checks kicks as good as anybody. If you watch his left leg, he checks everything. He’s checking all those calf kicks.”
The two then continued to marvel at the Brazilian’s stature. O’Malley said, “His fist is like literally, both [of] mine put together. It was so massive. Just a big fella.” Rogan then said, “It’s just like he’s built different than everybody else, man… That dude is a legitimate ancestor of people from the Amazon… that’s superior genetics son!”
Joe Rogan admits Alex Pereira might run into difficulties when he faces off against a fighter with a wrestling base
Stature is one thing – if a fighter is unable to back it up with the technique, much of that physicality becomes moot. However, according to Joe Rogan, that wasn’t the case with the Brazilian, who was ‘dangerous in every way’ – that is, technically proficient on almost all fronts.
The one part of the game where Alex Pereira struggled notably against Adesanya was on the ground. Rogan commented on this, saying, “We saw him struggle with Izzy [Israel Adesanya], perhaps he wasn’t prepared, cause he didn’t expect it, but still he got dominated on the ground by Izzy.”
From this, the two inferred that an ‘elite wrestler’ like Robert Whittaker or Marvin Vettori might have better success against the newly crowned middleweight champion of the world. That being said, it’s still early days in the UFC for Alex Pereira, who became champion in four fights. Before his next bout, he will have all the time in the world to prepare on the ground and show off his improved grappling.
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