Now that gentle heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is not competing within the middleweight division, former titleholder Robert Whittaker has change into a fan of the Brazilian.
Pereira is a fight sports activities veteran with 40 skilled kickboxing bouts. He arrived within the UFC in November 2021, largely recognized to blended marital arts followers because the man that beat Israel Adesanya twice in kickboxing. In his fourth UFC bout he grew to become the man that held three wins over “The Final Stylebender” and captured the middleweight title.
After dropping to Adesanya within the rematch, Pereira moved up a weight class and gained the 205-pound championship in his second struggle within the division. He efficiently defended the belt at UFC 300 in opposition to former champion Jamahal Hill. Pereira knocked Hill out within the first spherical.
“My relationship with Alex is bizarre as a result of I personally make it a degree to not like some other middleweight simply because they’re potential opponents. I do not need to get to know them that manner. I do not need to begin blurring traces between my facet of the fence and their facet of the fence. Understandably, it is all enterprise and it is not private however nonetheless I like drawing a line within the sand,” Whittaker stated on the MMArcade Podcast.
“Him being a middleweight on the time put him on my radar in that respect. However then he moved to gentle heavy and he is doing his factor in gentle heavy. The longer he is in hight heavy the extra I am beginning to just like the man,” Whittaker continued. “The extra I am beginning to like the way in which he approaches fights. I’ve obtained to say, he is obtained to be one of many coolest fighters in the meanwhile in my view.
“His walkout is simply so stoic and robust. Even that bow and arrow factor that he does with the scream is so cool. After which we take a look at his precise preventing prowess. The dude is only a phenom within the standup recreation. He is leagues forward of most different, positively some other gentle heavyweight, however most individuals within the recreation I really feel.”
