Curtis Blaydes doesn’t assume Alex Pereira ought to transfer as much as heavyweight.
At UFC 303, Pereira efficiently defended his gentle heavyweight title with a second spherical knockout of Jiri Prochazka. After the win, discuss shortly turned of Pereira presumably transferring as much as heavyweight to turn into the primary three division champion in UFC historical past. However Curtis Blaydes believes he ought to rethink.
“Dangerous thought,” Blaydes instructed reporters at UFC 304 media day. “Him, I’ll offer you my premeditated plan: I’m going to shoot. Instantly. Why would I give him any probability to knock me out on the ft after I know I can take him down at will? I’m certain he has to know that. I believe he’s searching for a particular heavyweight, not any heavyweight.
“He has matchups towards — I can see him beating guys like Tai. We watched him sparring Tai Tuivasa. Perhaps another guys within the backside of the top-15. However you give him a top-five man with some actual weight, he’s not profitable.”
Pereira not too long ago launched coaching footage with Tai Tuivasa which solely stoked the flames for a doable heavyweight transfer. However Pereira is a former middleweight and as Blaydes notes, he’s fought a few of the hardest hitting heavyweights of all time, which means he’s supremely assured “Poatan” wouldn’t actually have a puncher’s probability towards him.
“I’m going to eat that knee,” Blaydes stated when requested about Pereira’s flying knees. “I ate one from Alistair [Overeem]. You assume he throws tougher knees than Alistair? I do know he’s obtained the aura occurring proper now, however I ate a knee from 265 pound Alistair. I’m good with consuming knees.
“Sure [I would welcome a fight]. Sure. I do know that’s what everybody desires. I might f*ck up Alex Pereira. It’s not as a result of he’s not good. I’m heavier than he’s. A heavyweight, gravity, weight issues. It’s not a talent foundation. It’s simply how it’s.”
For now, such a matchup is solely hypothetical and Blaydes has his personal struggle to fret about as “Razor” takes on interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall within the co-main occasion of UFC 304 this Saturday in Manchester, England.