Israel Adesanya finally got his revenge on Alex Pereira during the Middleweight Championship main event match at UFC 287, recapturing the UFC Middleweight title after Pereira took it from him (making his record 3-0 against Adesanya across all their matches in combat sports, twice in kickboxing and once in the UFC) at UFC 281. Although many fans and analysts expected an Adesanya/Pereira trilogy to be the next move for both fighters to make, Pereira (7-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) announced post-fight that he would be moving up to the 205 light heavyweight weight class for his next fight.
“My next fight will be at 205,” Pereira revealed on his YouTube channel. “Yeah, you heard right. My next fight will be at 205. I think I did my work at 185, and now I’m feeling good to go up to 205. Like I told you, when I’m feeling good, I will go up. This will be something natural, and now I think it is.”
Michael Bisping echoed Poatan’s sentiment, stating that Alex Pereira at 205 is the right move and will only benefit the former UFC Middleweight champ.
“You’ve got to think that Alex Pereira at 205 will be even better than what he was at 185,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “Those hard weight cuts, and look at the size of Pereira. That was a tough weight cut every time he did it.
“They drain you, they sap you, they affect your stamina, they affect your recovery, they affect the training camp because you can’t eat carbohydrates, and you can’t recover from one session to the next. You get tired as the fights go on and more importantly, they affect your ability to take a punch.”
Pereira, whose rivalry with Adesanya in the UFC is now tied at 1-1, was knocked out at the end of the second round of their title fight at UFC 287, after appearing to trap Adesanya in the corner with a flurry of strikes in similar fashion to the way he secured the TKO win against Adesanya in their fight fight at UFC 281. Bisping believes that without a weight cut, Alex Pereira at 205 will have a much better chin and stamina to boot.
“All of that would be eradicated at 205,” Bisping added. “He will be a bigger, better, stronger, more stamina, fitter, higher output, and could take a better shot. And he better be able to take a better shot at 205 because they do hit harder.”
Do you think Alex Pereira at 205 will be even better than he was at 185, like Michael Bisping and Pereira himself seem to think? Let us know in the comments.
