Alex Pereira has proved his mettle in the UFC by becoming a two-division world champion in the shortest time to date. However, such a feat hasn’t impressed Light Heavyweight fighter Anthony Smith, who claimed he does not understand how ‘Poatan’ has gone so far in the organization with just one aspect to his game. In a recent interview with Daniel Cormier, Smith even insisted that Pereira needs to become a more complete fighter to keep his legacy alive.
Anthony Smith is currently gearing up for a massive fight at UFC 301. In the build-up to the fight, the 35-year-old sat down with Daniel Cormier on his latest YouTube video, where the two discussed everything from the UFC 301 fight to the current UFC light heavyweight champion.
Naturally, when talking about the champion, Cormier questioned if Pereira was worthy of the title. To this, Smith claimed that the Brazilian has only one thing going for him, saying,
“Like let’s not pretend this dude is a fire grappler, he’s just not….People can’t separate me from being an analyst and a fighter but I’m just analyzing his game….I don’t understand how he keeps winning.”
Anthony Smith then went on to talk about how Alex Pereira needs to work on his grappling. That is one aspect of his game that has not been put to the test in the octagon yet. In fact, the 35-year-old believes that the Brazilian might get into trouble if he comes up against a wrestling-dominant opponent in the future.
Interestingly, Cormier knows quite a bit about Pereira’s wrestling prowess since the two faced off in a wrestling bout ahead of UFC 301. From the looks of that, it was apparent that Pereira is now working on his ground game.
Alex Pereira takes down Daniel Cormier and surprises him with his strength
Although Alex Pereira wanted to fight on the UFC 301 card in Brazil, Dana White went a different way. Still, that did not stop Pereira from attending the event in his home country.
With Daniel Cormier also attending UFC 301, his growing friendship with ‘Poatan’ was made quite evident. While the pair keep running into each other, a video uploaded by XcellentMMA on X showed Pereira grappling with Cormier ahead of the event.
“This dude is f*cking strong bro. Hey look at this, he’s trying to wrestle now. This guy wrestling now.”
Alex Pereira to Daniel Cormier: ‘Don’t mess with me, we’re in Brazil’ pic.twitter.com/XoNKlTWTws
— Best MMA Moments (@XcellentMMA) May 3, 2024
Even in the interview with Anthony Smith, Daniel Cormier had spoken about Alex Pereira’s strength. He spoke about how every time he touched the guy he just felt strong. ‘Poatan’ executed a single-leg takedown on the former Olympian and Cormier was impressed. Hence, with Pereira working on his wrestling now, the other fighters in the division will be taking notice.
