- Daniel Cormier is not convinced that Alex Pereira could fight at heavyweight after UFC 313
- Chael Sonnen believes “Poatan” will not focus on moving up following his upset loss to Magomed Ankalaev
Daniel Cormier isn’t sure if Alex Pereira could take on a heavyweight opponent and Chael Sonnen thinks “Poatan” could be thinking twice about moving up after he lost to Magomed Ankalaev.
DC thinks Alex isn’t ready for the big boys
Speaking on the “Good Guy / Bad Guy” show, DC boldly criticized Pereira’s performance at UFC 313. For Cormier, the Brazilian did not demonstrate the strength and power of a heavyweight as any of the heavyweight fighters could just eat what Ankalaev was giving him.
“When we watched Saturday, watching him and Ankalaev fight, it gives me the idea. I think he’s kind of maxed out the weight he can go up. I don’t think he’s strong enough to deal with anyone bigger. The amount of pressure that Ankalaev was able to generate without the danger coming back at him like we expected, those heavyweights would kind of just walk right through what he [Ankalaev] was throwing at him,” Cormier said of Pereira.
Alex might not move up yet
On the other hand, Sonnen weighed in on what’s next for Pereira following his upset loss to Ankalaev. The way “The Bad Guy” sees it, “Poatan” will reconsider his thoughts of moving up to heavyweight and potentially face Tom Aspinall after his underwhelming performance at UFC 313.
“One thing we can all agree, whatever Pereira does next will be for a world title but he’s talking about Dricus [du Plessis], that’s not going to happen. But I’m talking about Tom Aspinall. Dana got on board with that a little bit, now it looks like they’re settled back down. But [Pereira] he’s not going to go and jump and agree to that fight unless he believes he can change the outcome and I am curious what he felt cuz his hands simply weren’t landing… his defense was on point, his boxing, he got outboxed and I think that was a surprise for everybody,” Sonnen said.
Some believe that Pereira should’ve won the fight but Ankalaev thinks the Brazilian did almost nothing to hurt him. A rematch is very likely to happen which also means that Pereira’s plan to move up to heavyweight will be paused.
Watch DC and Sonnen’s full show below:
