Alex Pereira has successfully made his light heavyweight debut after his defeating Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291.
Blachowicz has a track record for taking out middleweight fighters moving to the light heavyweight division. Jan made sure to use all his skills as a veteran and defeat Alex Pereira.
The Polish fighter had a good ground control time over Alex in the first round. He also almost submitted Poatan via a rear naked choke but did not succeed. Due to this Pereira made sure to keep the fight on his feet and damaged Blachowicz.
There’s no doubt Alex Pereira is Israel Adesanya’s biggest rival. The two men have faced each other four times, twice in kickboxing and twice in MMA. At UFC 287, ‘The Last Stylebender’ managed to reclaim his middleweight title from ‘Poatan’. After losing by TKO to the Brazilian at UFC 281, Izzy completely turned off Alex Pereira.
This weekend, Alex Pereira made his light-heavyweight debut. The Brazilian faced former division champion Jan Blachowicz. After 3 tight rounds, it was ‘Poatan’ who took the victory by split decision. In a video on his Youtube channel, Israel Adesanya reacted.
All three judges had Blachowicz winning the first round and Pereira in the second, while Blachowicz managed to score a takedown in the last round it was very uneventful. In the end, like Adesanya, many believe Alex Pereira won the fight and successfully cemented himself as a contender for the Light heavyweight title.
With the light heavyweight title vacant, it is not known who will fight Poatan for the title. However, he has made it clear that he will challenge Adesanya for a trilogy in the future.
“Alex won, he looked good at light heavyweight. (…) It was tricky on Jan’s part, he was clever, but it wasn’t enough. Now Alex should probably face Jiri (Prochazka) for the belt. I will follow. »
Thanks to his victory over the Pole, Alex Pereira proved that he can perform in the top category. Subsequently, the Brazilian could well face the Czech samurai Jiri Prochazka. The fight between the two men is highly anticipated by fans, and should put the belt vacated by Jamahal Hill on the line.
