Let’s give a shout-out to Glover Teixeira first. The 43-year-old not only became the oldest fighter to hold the prized title, but he had to fight killer after killer on his way. Of course, he can not fight forever and the loss against Jamahal Hill was a good performance to go out on. His teammate and friend Alex Pereira however might have some new ideas as to where he(Alex) might fight next.
Alex Pereira is the current UFC middleweight champion who very recently made his transition to MMA after a lock career in kickboxing. Alex knew he needed better wrestling, grappling, and ground game to take on some of the toughest challenges in mixed martial arts so he started sparring with Glover. The training seemed to have had some positive effects as Alex managed to defeat his rival Israel Adesanya.
In his kickboxing days, Pereira fought for the Glory Kickboxing promotion where he competed and won the championship in both middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions. One key difference to remember is that under Glory, Light-heavyweights could go up to 209lbs whereas UFC has a limit of only 205lbs.
The prospect of ‘Paotan’ moving up to the 205 division is nothing new as the Brazillian challenged Khamzat Chimaev at that weight class earlier. Glover will still coach Alex so his ground game can potentially get even better. Former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen wants to see Pereira avenge his teammate by moving up a weight class saying,
“Pereira will avenge Glover (Texeira)… I also believe, in the world of predictions, that’s wise. What you’re talking about is Alex Pereira leaving middleweight and going up to 205 lbs. My belief that Pereira is going to go 205 lbs, that gets shut down real fast if a fight announcement comes out for Pereira for 185 lbs. But who are we going to put Pereira with against, other than Adesanya?”
How many times do you think will Alex Pereira defend his title?
