It seems like these guys with atleast a decade of grappling/wrestling and Jujitsu experience barely even attempt to use it against him. You’re fighting maybe the most dangerous kickboxer in the UFC who has the power of a fucking howitzer in his hands but little grappling experience and they just try to stand a bang with him leaving their right hands down. Don’t get me wrong he’s a monster but it’s like they’re trying to make it easy for him. Jahamal hill even said I’m going to stand with him to “prove a point” like how stupid are you ?
Can someone explain to a casual why no one seems to want to take down Alex Periera?
But when he tried again, he got elbowed to death
To be fair, he'd already had his shit rocked at that point and was only shooting out of desperation
To be fair, he'd had his shit rocked at that point and was only shooting out of desperation
Dude was knocked down with a punch, tried to shoot out of desperation, took more 14 strikes to the side of the head (going limp) falls to his back with Poatan on top, and people here to this day claim it was a early stoppage.
He was still breathing damnit!
Chill Jiri
Thats why herb let alex land a lot extra this time, no question
The way i see this, the right call was to end as soon as Jiri hit the ground (and people would cry and complain it was an early stoppage again) but he wasn't out cold so i can see the reasoning for Herb not stopping right away. Poatan saw that the fight wasn't stopped and went for the kill, while herb went the same way, making poatan body block him.
Then Herb had to raise the corpse of Jiri for all to see so there would be no doubt
RIP Jiri
A lot of people drink the early stoppage koolaid because it adds a little spice to the rematch
it adds a little spice to the rematch
Which Jiri doesn't need. He's a good fighter and that alone is enough for the rematch.
Yeah, it's kinda crazy to me that anyone could call that an early stoppage
Yo it was a lot of elbows
Yeah that's the uncomfortable part. Even good wrestlers will get elbowed endlessly. Most of these guys are just average wrestlers and won't necessarily win on the ground to him just laying on his back and wailing with his ridiculously conditioned power.
Even Almeida got elbowed in the Blaydes fight and he is a talented grappler
so is Blaydes tbf
They sleep on blaydes so much that they forgot he’s literally one of the only heavyweights that can take you down at will and shoot multiple takedowns per round
Pavlovich seemed to disagree about him taking you down at will.
Loved to see it too
Jiri isn't a great offensive grappler. His entire stance is also antithetical to getting to a takedown attempt without completely telegraphing it.
The only guy I can think of who employs the same kind of stance and leans on his grappling is Gunnar Nelson, and I would say the point karate stance was always Gunnar's biggest hurdle to clear in employing his grappling.
That jab to the body any time jiri even fainted a level change, stopped all that momentum and shows him the read is there.
Alex was closing openings right away
This jab was a nice adjustment given that had almost no time to prepare. I don’t remember that jab in the first fight. Probably just something he quickly discussed with his coaches.
I think so too. He just read how Jiri level changes, and was confident in his striking reads to use it well.
There’s the talk that Alex saw Jiris warm up video and read how he sloppily was practicing kick check and that’s where the switch kick to the dome came from.
Yeah Alex and his coach both confirmed that story in interviews. His coach was watching the video and brought it to his attention and that’s when he decided to add in head kicks to his gameplan.
Absolutely mental how skilled he is in striking adjustments.
This was key.
Even trying a level change, he was going to get hit.
I'm 99% Poatan is a left hander who fights orthodox (like opposite of Dustin) so his jab is fucking nasty.
He got a single leg in the first. In the second he only got to a clinch and failed to turn it into anything. I dunno if Alex just improved or what but seemed hard for him to get anything off.
Part of it is because Alex is getting much better at the underhook/overhook battle and swimming for either or, and his legs are tree trunks. He’s also extremely flexible for his size, and pound for pound i would bet he’s among the strongest in his division. Strength is a huge attribute for wrestling, and him being as strong as he is while just being able to understand he needs to fight the under/overhooks could negate anyone but the most exceptional offensive wrestlers. He’s also gonna chew your legs up from a distance before you can initiate grappling, which is gonna take a toll on your takedowns attempts.
Someone with elite offensive could set the traps needed, alternate by going high and low, use two on ones, and trick him into giving up double unders or an over/under.. but almost all of that will leave you open to get hit at some point. Alex is also unique in the sense he ONLY has to train to not be taken down, then train to ONLY work back to his feet since he’s so far ahead striking wise. Most guys need to have wrestling as a plan B in case they’re losing the striking battle, something he doesn’t really have to worry about.
He can also just run the clock out if he does get taken down by keeping everything tight, continuously just holding the person close to him so they can’t land meaningful ground and pound, all stuff I’m sure Glover has gone over with him. This will cause someone to use a lot of energy for little reward, just to start again on the feet’s
Between the crippling leg kicks, the distance management which Alex is a master of, his mastery of timing, and being an expert sniper with otherworldly power… Alex is gonna be a unique puzzle for someone to solve, and it’s gonna take someone with exceptional grappling who also has a good understanding of striking to setup that grappling, since just bum rushing him is probably a really bad idea (for the reasons I already listed).
The secret is to have top tier kickboxing skills and let him back you up to the cage then catch him with a hook when he gets overconfident.
This is an excellent analysis, and I think your point is exemplified by the fact that the only guy who's beaten him recently is a striker of equivalent skill in Adesanya (and of course, he's still beaten Adesanya 3/4 times they've fought)
Thanks man. I’ve been kinda arguing with a few people who think it’s just as simple as “well just wrestle him then!” .. like, it’s not that easy. People have tried, it’s not easy to get that close to him and every inch closer to his striking range just gets more dangerous. Even if you do get him down, do you think it’s easy to keep him there? He’s obviously not as easy to submit as people think either. Glover works with him daily, so he’s not going into any fight blind or without a game plan.
Yeah he trains in Brazil. Even as a striking expert, you know he's being trained how to grapple. It would not surprise me at all if he's purposefully sandbagging surprisingly dangerous bjj
If Ankalaev takes him down and gets choked out I would literally shit myself
So would Ankalaev
As a casual BJJ guy try taking down a hobbyist Purple/Brown belt. Its not fucking easy unless you set good traps or have some wrestling background. That is without the threat of a knee/elbow or punch from the heavens about to shadow realm you.
Even I was like come on Jiri don't stand with this guy again but setting up a few strikes to even enter a takedown is fraught with danger. Let alone a naked shot which looks like a fuckin terrible idea.
Every time Jiri tried to level change Alex stuck him with a body jab. Pretty much shuts down the TD attempt because even if your opponent wraps their arms you still have the underhook.
There were a couple times where Jiri ducked down and Alex timed him with a clean jab to the face. At one point Jiri got hit and took a step back and stared at him like "I asked you not to use magic you shaman motherfucker"
That shit was mad. He would throw the jab to the body and ajust to make it hit jiri's head
the difficulty involved in connecting those jabs when Jiri was essentially bobbing/weaving can't be overstated.
He's a fucking sniper, the two rights he hit Strickland with after dropping him with he left hook felt like heat seeking missiles
Jiri got him with a few fake level changes into an upper cut in the first fight. Nice to see how they adjusted regarding that.
I think this is a key point people are overlooking.
To grapple, you need to quickly close the distance on your opponent, and Alex just has so many weapons to punish someone for trying. He’s got knees, jabs, hooks, etc.
Alex is a master of distance management and timing. He’ll also destroy your legs, making it difficult to close the distance as quickly.
Alex is a big dude, strong. He has some understanding of leverage/clinch fighting already, so he really only needed to learn some basic TDD and ground defense to be a capable MMA fighter. Helps that there aren't really that many strong wrestlers ranked at 185/205.
By some understanding you mean years of training MMA and wrestling and jiu jitsu under glover texiera. That's gonna make you tough to take down.
Whoa are you suggesting that Pereira is a highly coachable elite athlete with amazing resources and may actually have good TDD? Can’t be
Wait are you also suggesting that this paired with his fight IQ makes him hard to take down?
Naah man you got that wrong. It's his ancient aztek magic that makes him so dominant. Being one of the most talented ,motivated and dedicated combat sport athletes with access to a superb coaching crew has nothing to do with it
It could be, but maybe nobody ever thought about taking him down? Maybe it’s just that? Who knows
Throw a little bit of pocket sand in his eyes and shoot, very simple.
Be born Brock Lesnar, juice to the gills before you're 17, and shoot a double leg from 15 yards out. Very simple.
Brock Lesnar is all natural
He's a white boy and he's jacked. Deal with it.
With this foresight, and the ability to see red, YOU too could become the 205 champion of the world
Plus you always have to be terrified of that left hand… like if you shoot at the wrong time and he catches you coming in? Goodnight. Oh wait, he’s also an elite striker with his legs?… maybe shooting your face at his knees is a little sketch too
Big if true
Easy now. He switched to MMA in 2015 based in Brazil. He starting training under Glover in 2020. With all due respect to his abilities he's still rather fresh when it comes to wrestling and grappling.
But again. Who need that when you can just knock out people
He doesnt really even use TDD, he keeps his feet planted and counters with hard accurate shots whenever someone tries. Look at the takedown attempts from Jiri in both fights. AP just used them as an opportunity to hit him while he was moving forward.
That's why the Khamzat fight at 185 was so intriguing. What an incredible matchup that we will now never get to see.
Dude is allergic to main events, I imagine a title fight would outright kill him
5 round fight sounds like a death sentence for khamzat
Khamzat is overrated as hell
Not his grappling
Why?
He's still undefeated and beat great fighters. Because he pulled out of a fight?
The bad weight miss for the Nate Diaz fight, getting sick constantly, and not being able to fight outside of the Middle East have really taken a toll on his aura. He went from fighting twice in 10 days and three times in two months, to fighting once a year. I realize that some of that is outside of his control, but he should re-evaluate his training and recovery as it seems to be a pattern.
For me , Khamzat right NOW does come across as overrated. Every top guy that (Burns and Usman) he's fought, he didn't look that great and barely scraped a win.
He won though.
I think he means in overrated in regards to the people who still consider him an unstoppable monster that will run through everything in his path.
He’s clearly an elite fighter and can beat top 5 talent but in very competitive fights
Yeah this is what I meant. He can obviously hang at the top but he's not this unstoppable monster that the fans make him out to be.
That's an intriguing matchup regardless of what you think of Khamzat. The guy is not scared to shoot in the opening seconds of the fight, and he usually takes you down. Would Alex's grappling hold up against that kind of aggression? Who knows, that's why its so intriguing lol
khamzat would have washed him at 85 lol, even izzy was controlling alex on the ground without issue
I would argue that recently, he's very underrated. People talk about him like he's a bum.
He’s a combination of extremely strong and very long. Hard to get leverage on a guy like that when his hips can create so much space and be out of reach in such a short time.
Good case study for those that think wrestlers could just dump any other combat athlete on their head without hesitation. Having to cover that distance against a guy that can punch like Pereira is much easier said than done.
Funny that he made his big run right after a lot of the really strong grapplers in 185 (Jacare, Weidman, Rockhold, Romero) started aging out or falling off due to culuminative damage. I wonder if he would've had as much success if he came on scene around the time they were at their peak.
True but Jan took him down with ease.
Hill has never shot a takedown before. Most of his opponents are strikers and are confident in their own abilities, misplaced confident thoo hence why they get slept.
And idiots who say “Why didn’t he shoot a takedown brah” are so casually minded and are unable to have their minds changed. A pure striker whose strength isn’t grappling isn’t gonna be able to just take Pereira down with ease and beat him, that version of Pereira no longer exists.
Jan Blachowicz is the most well rounded LHW except for Ankalaev (And let’s not forget that Jan ragdolled Adesanya in their fight), and he wasn’t even able to get close to submitting Alex even though he was on his back with a body triangle in Round 1 where he’d have the most energy and explosiveness. Plus, Alex was actually doing a good job of stuffing his shots in Round 2 and 3
People see fighters like they’re video game characters with set stats and shit that can never be changed, fighters improve fight to fight and can get better, especially someone who was new to MMA like Pereira
People see fighters like they’re video game characters with set stats and shit that can never be changed, fighters improve fight to fight and can get better, especially someone who was new to MMA like Pereira
To add on, they don't count fatigue into this. spamming take downs over and over is exhausting the big boys at lhw are not gonna be able to be like khabib for 25 minutes without gassing.
Alex defense is functional enough that you would have to exhaust yourself to try and wrestle fuck him
Also getting through the fucking minefield that is his striking to grapple him.
Exactly, if you watch the rematch with Jiri then you can see that Jiri actually feints a few level changes and everytime he did that Alex would jab him to the face or body. It’s why he didn’t grapple as much as the first fight
Thank you!!
I’m glad there’s others pointing these techniques out! He stopped any forward momentum with that and added damage. He shut the doors closed before jiri had time to adjust and vary his level change
People make him out to be a 1-dimensional striker but he’s such a well rounded fighter that just so happens to have 1HKO power in basically both hands. Like Strickland said: he touches you and you die.
So you have to contend with his powerful jab, 1HKO right, knees, elbows, and elite TDD just to grapple with him on the ground. People really don’t understand how hard that is since most people in this subreddit are just MMA fans and don’t/haven’t actually trained to compete in any form of MA
Anyone who grapples also understands it's considerably easier to learn how to defend takedowns and submissions than to be offensive with it. If you aren't a wrestling specialist, it won't be easy to take down a 6'4 prime athlete at will, especially one who can end your life with any stray shot.
He also has the intelligence of a sandwich.
Salt content of one too
Jamahal Hill is the country ham sandwich of MMA
No one can argue that 😅
Literally all of his UFC opponents have landed a takedown on him except for Strickland and Hill
Fucking Izzy of all MWs is the one with most control time over him
I won’t stand for this Andreas Michailidis erasure
He held Poatan down basically the entire 1st round
3 something minutes vs 6 something. Andreas wishes he was ADCCsanya
True but his ground game is much better now than then
true, but Michailidis was never a particularly good wrestler, and is also now a welterweight
would make me really worry about Alex's chances vs someone like Ankalaev -- it was less than 3 years ago
It could be a cloudy night and Ankalaev will still see stars.
The fact that both of them didn’t know what to do is hilarious. They were just laying there
Both were like, "shit, now what?"
"You initiated this you idiot!"
"Well,you reversed it!"
*...start making out passionately."
And for the record people overblow the grappling exchanges in that first fight as well, Izzy didn’t take Pereira down in that third round. Pereira tried to trip Izzy and take him down but Izzy reversed the position and ended up on top.
People forget that Pereira banked the second round in their first fight by actually taking Izzy down, it was a weird gameplan thing I guess that didn’t work out for him
Ppl didn’t think it was concerning that Izzy took him down but how long and easily he held him there. Which has nothing to do with Alex initiating it. Definitely seems like Alex has improved since then though.
Glover is a great coach.
That feels like a misremembering of the 2nd round. Alex had some solid work on the feet that round and pressured well. The takedown was in the final 7 seconds and I don’t think he needed that to secure the round.
Yes, but often times fighters will shoot takedowns at the end of rounds in order to make it clear it was their round even if they won soundly on the feet, that’s what I mean by that.
Fair, covering all bases
and both of those guys came into the fight with the explicit game plan of striking with him
Well, Sean didn't. Sean's gameplan with the coach was to wrestle 🤣🤣
well yeah and sean switched the plan whilst in the hotel
Well if you watch the fight I think it's clear his plan wasn't actually wrestling going into the fight as he actually shoots 0/0🤯
Strickland and Hill were also very very short fights. If it went longer, perhaps they would attempt takedowns
Hasn't fought strong wrestlers yet (and those are rare at MW and especially LHW)
Even though, he has been taken down several times by various guys, the most successful of which being Blachowicz, who did an excellent job of setting up his takedowns with his hands
This. He hasn't faced any strong grapplers, I'm curious if magomed will try to get it to the ground if he gets a title shot. Alex does keep the distance well, and has a good camp around him on top of being a physical specimen
He will try to take it to the ground. I don't think Ankalaev is stupid enough to stand toe to toe with Alex.
The man who gave up half a fight getting leg kicked by Jan?
I forgot about that fight. Now I am sure he tries to take Alex to the ground.
Haha fair enough
I don't think it is that simple. I agree with you, Magomed isn't stupid. I don't think he was for that fight either. Jan has big power, it isn't so simple to get someone with big power and decent td defense down. I think we may see the same thing if he fights Alex, except if he takes that many leg kicks from him he will lose a leg.
Yeah I've always thought Ank would be a good test for Alex but that dudes fight IQ continues to baffle me. Wouldn't be surprised if he decides to stand with him "until he needs to shoot" then just gets smoked like Sean or Jamahal thinking they're doing alright in the striking.
This is exactly right, the only person he’s fought who’s primarily a grappler is the journeyman he fought in his UFC debut. Everyone else is primarily a standup guy, Jan being the best grappler he’s fought amongst ranked fighters says all you need to know about how favorable the matchups have been for him
If he beats Ank and there’s no grappling or wrestling during the fight will you still accuse him of being gifted favourable matchups? Curious to see how you people move the goal post on that one.
Ank is a striker, I swear you guys just see that he’s Muslim and assume he wrestles.
Not me. I’ve seen the statistics. No submission wins, takedown accuracy 31%. It’s just people hype him up as an amazing wrestler but I’m telling you if Alex beats him standing people will move the goal post and act like he was never good.
takedown accuracy 31%.
bit misleading with the style of chain wrestling that part of the world uses, khabibs takedown % was less than 50 but we all know its not about getting the first shot but the chain wrestling to eventually get you down
bit misleading with the style of chain wrestling that part of the world uses, khabibs takedown % was less than 50 but we all know its not about getting the first shot but the chain wrestling to eventually get you down
Khabib averaged 5.32 TDs per 15 minutes, coupled with .48 TD accuracy, he is taking guys down 2.55 times over 3 rounds, and given his top control & GnP, he is winning more than 2 out of 3 rounds purely on wrestling.
Ank averages 1.01 TD attemps per 15 minutes, you couple that with 31% accuracy, and he is scoring like 1 TD every 3 fights, so its clear he is not a wrestler despite the haircut and country of origin.
Both Jan and Dustin Poirier shoot more and have greater accuracy, just as a for instance.
Any other haircut & country, people would call him a striker with some reasonable wrestling that he occasionally uses when losing on the feet.
Nahh man it's a valid take that alex hasn't fought any real wrestlers. Ankalaev is a proper wrestler he's from dagestan and fairly sure he trains with the khabib guys.
The reason his stats are like that is because he loves his striking and doesn't use is wrestling much. In the Jan fight as soon Jan was taking over with the striking ankalaev used his wrestling and dominated Jan. Jan is the best wrestler that poatan has faught so far.
Not saying that ankalaev 100% beats Alex. But it would definitely be his worst stylistic match up on paper.
He does not train with Khabib's guy, iirc, and absolutely is more of a kickboxer than he is a grappler. He can wrestle, but it wouldn't be his first choice.
Regardless of him being Muslim, he is the best wrestler at LHW.
The heaviest divisions really hit dire straits when it comes to skills ...
Ankalaev is ABSOLUTELY NOT a primary wrestler, he has shitty takedowns and rarely ever goes for them.
Pereria has absolutely had favorable matches but not because of matchmaking, just by nature of the fact that there are no elite wrestlers at 185 or 205. I don't blame him for it, but acting like it's not true is just asinine. He is the right fighter in the right division at the right time. No one is taking his title for a while.
The matchup on paper isn’t great for Alex. If Ank refuses to grapple that would be on him for being stupid. It would be a weird situation bc on the one hand it’s not a great matchup for Alex on paper, but Ank not grappling still wouldn’t answer questions about Alex’s real grappling skill. But you can’t hold it against Alex if a superior grappler refuses to use those tools
You also can’t hold it against Alex if LHW is pretty shallow skill wise hence why the “favourable matchups” are not intentional and feels like a weird claim. He has no choice but “favourable matchups”. Blame the division.
I guess it was more brazen at MW. A lot more competent grapplers in that division that he got to skip over.
Either way, it’s the UFC’s call, not Alex’s. Just to be clear I still think he’s had a remarkable and historic run, the favorable matchups thing is just what I think keeps him outside goat conversations.
There are no strong wrestlers at MW, LHW, or HW. There are a few ok wrestlers like Ankalaev, and they would probably beat Pereira if they don’t get KO’d right away, especially if they’re bigger than him.
Curtis Blaydes is good, though he has a tendency to get smoked before he gets to his grappling.
He needs to set up his takedowns better. He's got decent enough striking for a HW wrestler, he could absolutely work on setting up his takedown attempts with strikes as well as feinting level changes into more strikes. He's one of the few HWs who could adequately mix his striking and grappling together for the betterment of both, I just wish he would. Hoping we'll see some of that in the upcoming Aspinall fight.
Derrick Lewis fight is probably the best example. Did decently well landing on Derrick for a round and a half, but his first takedown attempt he just ducks in naked and gets chinned for it.
Bo Nickal is a MW.
It's a combination of Alex having good takedown defence, LHW skill regression when it comes to grappling and matchmaking being somewhat favourable to Alex not necessarily by intention but just by default.
Oh and he has been taken down.
Because taking him down requires getting within hitting distance of him. He's got functional enough hip control and balance to stave off or slow takedowns, so takedowns aren't freebies and in the time you're closing distance for a takedown all he has to do is hit you once. "Just take him down" is another version of "just stand up".
edit: to expand, Alex as a god tier striker also has footwork and angles to support his "striking as a takedown defense." Long range, pinpoint accuracy, huge power, and always being aware of range and angles means takedowns are very risky. If you make it to him and can grab him, he still has functional TDD, which usually forces a break or restart, and you're back on the outside trying to find a way past his dim mak strikes.
Gane looked lost vs Jones as soon as he closed the distance. I wonder if Alex has just enough takedown defense to fend him off at this point. Jones historically was beating others with his range, which he will have less of vs. Alex. I’d still like to see him give it a shot, on the off chance Jones gets shadow realmed.
this was an example that popped into my head. Gane is a phenom of an athlete with incredible gifts and Jones took him down easily, but Alex is an outstanding athlete with experience and knowledge on top. Its tough to get inside Alex because he uses his footwork and balance to keep himself where he needs to be all the time. He's adapted to MMA by not letting himself get tied up as much as he would in kickboxing. Gane still relied on the threat of power, something Jones' experience nullified quickly. Alex has that power threat, but with the experience and knowledge to make it terrifying.
I agree. I don’t think it’s as sure of a thing that Jones submits Alex as people are saying. His last few fights at LHW were not grappling heavy.
I think this is the answer. Even if his take down defense is subpar, you need to get very close with an exposed head to accomplish the takedown without falling asleep halfway through. On top of that, he’s very disciplined in his striking, manages distance brilliantly, and rarely over-extends, which means there aren’t many opportunities to take advantage of (like catching an errant kick), so you gotta go get the takedown by putting yourself in massive danger. He basically min-maxed his striking so much that his takedown defense stats went up by default lol. Add to all of that the lack of truly elite wrestlers at MW and LHW and you have a recipe for a bunch of Poatan knockouts hahaha
That jab to the body any time jiri even fainted a level change, stopped all that momentum and shows him the read is there.
Alex was closing openings right away
Alex is a huge big strong dude and actually has pretty good grappling defence both against take downs and when he actually got taken down like vs Jan and Izzy he seems to know good defensive grappling considering his background.
Because 205 is shit and most guys who don't already do takedowns won't suddenly do it. Only Jan came in with the idea to immediately test his wrestling and grappling early, and he had good success.
A lot of people presume that someone like Ankalaev will just immediately wrestle Alex because he has a beard and comes from a certain part of the world. That isn't him at all. Waited till Jan kicked his legs to pieces before trying to wrestle and (to the surprise of no one who watched Glover vs Jan) had immediate success with it.
That's modern 205 for you, just a division of guys who mostly vibe and don't leverage their best attributes or do anything involving a game plan. Guys who will wrestle in modern 205 are a) Ankalaev, who doesn't want to do it at all, b) Krylov, who has vanished off the face of the planet and c) Jan, who isn't a wrestler, but will do it if he thinks its the right thing to do.
It’s sad how terrible 205 is. For a decade plus it was the premier division in MMA and now it just sucks. Gonna get downvoted for saying this probably but none of these 205ers in the last 5 years besides Alex would come close to being champ from 2007-2018.
205 is the argument against each generation getting better
I honestly think Pereiras BJJ and TDD at this point is underrated. I mean the guy may not necessarily have the best BJJ, but really all he needs is to use it defensively, and he’s been training his defensive bjj for a solid couple of years. Add this with the fact that the all current LHWs he fought are primarily strikers, it kinda makes sense why people don’t shoot takedowns on him, or have a decently hard time with him due to his stature and experience with defensive bjj and Tdd
Add on to that every round starts on the feet. Alex when he gets taken down makes no real effort to get up typically. Sorta just stalls and waits for the next round. In a 3 round fight this strategy is far less effective than in the 5 round championship fights.
It works great for Alex as it usually means his opponent has to put in even more work to make the takedown worth it and usually spend the whole round doing anything to try and get Alex to open up while he does the bare minimum to survive.
He's bound to end up with decent defensive grappling just through osmosis training with Glover Teixeira. And with some dedicated training it makes sense it would be better than what most people expect.
It's a lot easier to train up defense, than it is to become good at offense in grappling.
I think you underestimate his grappling. His coach is Glover.
Every round starts standing.
Also I think cause he’s so large it probably helps make up for having less grappling experience. As someone mentioned, lots of people have taken him down but they couldn’t finish him. He obviously is skilled to pick up just enough grappling
He moves well, is really heavy, and hits hard. He’s elusive in his movement so the timing can be tricky. He’s really long and heavy. You’d have to be super strong and time it just right or else you’re gonna burn yourself out trying and guys at these weight limit can burn out really fast. Hits really fucking hard. One hitter quitter. Any attempts can cost you the fight. I’m pretty sure Pereira whole game is just striking and drilling takedown defense and how to get back in his feet.
It's why JJ wants the fight so badly.
He wants the fight so bad he needs Pereira to fight and defeat Tom Aspinall first...
Cause he's fought nearly all strikers.
Easy to explain. He casts a spell on them to prevent it.
It’s not that they don’t, it’s that they can’t find an opening to enter. Jiri would blitz and get torched by a jab that would put most people to sleep. Fighters try to find entry but if they don’t do it early and they begin to slow down they almost never get a real chance to take him down without taking serious punishment on the way in.
Hard to shoot in on a striker that good with that much reach.
You're going to dive straight into an elbow and wakeup on the stretcher.
Taking down a resisting opponent - especially one with obviously freakish athletic genetics like Pereira - is not an easy thing to do. It also doesn't help that precisely 1 of the top 10 contenders in BOTH MW and LHW has any amount of accolades in wrestling outside of MMA - Magomed Ankalaev; and he seems to be living in a perpetual jail of Murphy's Law.
When you only fight shit grapplers you only have to be a slightly less shit defensive grappler.
Takedowns in MMA can be very dangerous. Throwing a naked takedown at Alex can result in you getting switch kneed into another realm of existence.
Because the light heavyweights of late are notoriously stupid
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6d
Yeah I mean, jones, aspinal and blaydes are all high level grapplers. This is why the “pereira to HW” move isn’t very interesting to me. Likely to end in a repeat of jones vs gane, or MVP vs Garry
Also you have to get inside to get the takedown and it’s very hard because of his accuracy and power, same can be said for Sean O’malley
It’s the shamanic black magic that makes them stand with him
Y’all take out of account that glover trains him all the time.
I’m sure he’s only gotten better over time.
The only willing and able edit: wrestler he's fought has been Jan and he grapples once every five fights nowadays
Jan isn’t a wrestler
When going in for a takedown, they need to get close. One thing about Pereira, is that he can generate a ton of power without throwing a full punch. Which means in the Clinch or tied up close, he has huge knockout power still.
His takedown defense has improved, but I think his offensive threat of uppercuts and elbows scare people away. If it was this easy, I think more guys would do it, but Alex seems to be steadily improving at keeping things on the feet.
For the most part it's because he hasn't really fought anyone who's primary a grappler.
The best grappler he fought is Yan, and even he is primarily a striker. Periera has benefited from a lack of grapplers at the top of MW and LHW over the past couple years.
This isn't meant to take anything from Periera as he can only fight who he is offered or is in his division.
It’s far easier to defend takedowns than it is to actually get them. It’s not just enough to be a better wrestler than your opponent, you need to be a much better wrestler, especially when your opponent has no interest in engaging in grappling whatsoever.
How much offensive wrestling has Jiri actually practices? Probably not very much. Offensive wrestling has never been a cornerstone of his game. The majority of his time wrestling has probably been spent on defending takedowns rather than achieving them himself. Alex just hasn’t faced any good enough offensive wrestlers (except for Blachowicz, maybe).
I think people often misconscrue what is effective in MMA.
The learning curve to being an effective defensive wrestler is significantly smaller in MMA than it is in collegiate wrestling.
Even more so if you have a great coach who can teach you defensive skills and tactics that compliment your tool set.
He controls distance and mixes up his shots well. Additionally, it's hard to take someone down without properly setting up the opportunity. Especially if you can't get them to react to anything you do.
With that being said, there are also not a lot of great MMA wrestlers at LHW right now, so he has also been pretty lucky with some of his match ups. I think by the time he does have to deal with a real wrestler in MMA, he'll have the tools necessary to keep the fight standing.
I think more than his power, Alex's real gift is his understanding of timing and positioning.
Everyone’s an All American wrestler till you get punched in the fucking face. Then you’re just a brawler with shitty striking.
The best Kickboxers that transfer to MMA have a masterful spatial awareness and stay out of range of takedowns. He also does a great job of pivoting and landing his left hook when an opponent tries to close the distance on him.
When people try to get close to him, he knocks them out with his hands and arms and legs
Alex vs Ank in October will answer a lot of questions
He's been gifted favorable matchups and hasn't fought a decent wrestler. When he fought jan, a half decent wrestler, we got the snoozer of the decade.
Alex's full time training partner and coach is one of the best cage wrestlers in the history of the division. He's a black belt under him. He has a vulnerability in grappling, but he's been grappling as long as manu of his opponents. He hasn't faced an elite wrestler yet, and theres been like 4 "elite" wrestlers in the history of light heavyweight anyways.
Someone dosent watch the fights because he been taken down numerous times, it's just he is actually really good at grappling defense
Because he’s incredibly difficult to get down.
First of all, taking him down requires dropping your defenses and getting close to him. His style makes that incredibly dangerous.
Second: tall, heavy guys are hard to take down. Alex is really tall and really heavy. And they’re trying to get him somewhere he doesn’t wanna go. He’s also a brown belt so he understands jiu jitsu better than most kickboxers/knows how to counter takedowns. He intentionally stays quite static on the feet, in order to prevent himself becoming easily unbalanced.
Third: He hasn’t fought anyone who would be a grappling threat. All of his opponents have been strikers.
Because he is better on the ground than people think.
Glover was a prodigy of Chuck Liddell, who termed the phrase "wrestling in reverse."
Glover is also a high-level black belt himself.
Alex is Glover's prodigy. Chances are Alex has been taught this same "wrestling in reverse," making most takedowns pointless unless you have a wrestling background. Then Alex knows enough to be safe if and when he is taken down.
Plus, he has mostly faced only Strikers who have the same offensive wrestling skills, which isn't a lot. This is one reason the Ian Garry fight was impressive, even with how much hate he is getting. Garry bit his pride and ego to fight a boring but winning fight. That is how you beat Alex.
Ego, physically hard on his strong ass, and a lack of ability. The guys who can do, but many of his opponents have either not shot a takedown literally ever(Hill) or don’t grapple anymore (Sean, Jiri to an extent).
It's because of the poison touch.
Periera is rumored to arm himself with poison that he extracts from the poison dart frog, found deep in the Brazilian rain forests. He rubs that poison around his torso, and just waits patiently for his opponent to take him down. The unfortunate ones fell for this trap and suffered the most horrible deaths.
He very stronk and jacket
If it was me I'll just take him down and beat him up.
Jan did and actually did a really good job with it in the first round of their fight. Even though Alex isn't much of a grappler, his defense on the ground is fairly sound. Jan controlled him for almost the entire first round and only landed 5 sig strikes.
Jiri did it in their first fight too - got a takedown in the 1st but couldn't do much with it. The takedown attempt in the 2nd round is what got him elbowed to oblivion and ended up getting Alex the TKO.
Jamahal is just a goof and decided he would stand with Alex to prove a point, do with that info what you will.
He hasn't fought anyone in the UFC who wants to take him down or has the pedigree to do so. He's fighting strikers, and a few of them will only take him down just to mix it up a little.
The only dedicated grapplers in his divisions, he never fought or don't exist. Even at MW, who's a wrestler there? Khamzat and overweight Usman? Brendan Allen?
The best grappler he's fought in the UFC is Bruno Silva let that sink in.
Jamahal, Jiri, and Jan are not grapplers. They are strikers that occasionally can pull out some grappling.
Hard to talk down long legged dudes with good sprawls. Plus Teixera is very high level on the ground so he has serious skills there but hardly ever gets to show them off because his opponents have a hard time getting past his striking
Because they feel the minutemthey try they will get knocked out. It's wierd tho right, either way they will get knocked out. Seems more guys would def try and Dc himself is surprised by this
Jan did. And it worked very well for that round. There just aren’t a lot of great wrestlers in the division.
Light-heavy weight sucks
LIGHT-HEAVY WEIGHT SUCKS
Ego
The calf kicks keep you away, the left hook takes you out.
A few points, Alex is only 8-1 in the UFC. Out of the opponents hes fought literally none of them are wrestlers, theyre all kickboxers/strikers. I know Alex is very popular right now but looking objectively his UFC career has been protected via these matchups.
Another few points to credit Alex. One his range/reach is insane and his distance management is very good, he doesnt get backed up very often because he is very good at striking across space while his opponents are trying to break into range to wrestle. His lead hook catches anyone whos trying to come across space. While his opponents are trying to figure out how to engage he chops the fuck out of their calf. Second his takedown defence and wrestling knowledge has improved vastly by training with Glover. In his first Izzy fight you can tell he wasnt as polished and struggled with wrestling. In his current form it seems he knows enough about wrestling to defend against it well.
The Ankalaev matchup seems to be his first real test against an actual wrestler. Other tests would be Jon Jones and Aspinall or Curtis Blaydes but other than that he matches up very well against other opponents in the current roster.
In short we need LHW khabib to defeat this dude anyone else apart from Izzy loses to him in striking and doesnt have high enough wrestling skill to wrestlefuck him.
People act like Alex has never grappled before and it’s like taking down a random dude on the street. His bjj black bit is a bit of a joke but he is a bjj black belt, call him a purple belt if you think it’s that sus. He’s still got grappling knowledge. He’s a big athletic guy and people are scared to pay for a bad entry…jiri, Jan, Izzy, Silva and his debut all have taken him down. The only guys he’s fought who didn’t successfully take Alex down were Strickland and hill, because they got knocked out early before they could. Everyone wants to take him down. He’s not easy to take down and he’s not easy to keep down.
Most every ranked fighter he has fought is primarily a striker.
Prime Weidman or DC have their way with him. Glover several years younger probably would too.
Jiri tried to take him down in the second fight and failed. In the first fight he took Alex down one time. But when he tried again, he got elbowed to death