Yoel Romero has decoded the process to beat UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. The ‘Soldier Of God’ appeared on the latest episode of the ‘Overdogs Espanol’ podcast, where he revealed the blueprint to defeat ‘Poatan’.
Pereira has got the better of two former divisional champs, Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill, in his last two in-octagon showdowns. His thunderous left hook is also one of the most feared in-octagon weapons of the current times.
This is why Romero claims that a purely “striking” styled approach won’t be of much help against Pereira. The Cuban fighter believes that ‘Poatan’s’ rivals need to be dynamic in their approach if they wanted to win.
However, Romero had also noticed how the Brazilian didn’t face much trouble after being taken down by Jan Blachowicz and Jiri Prochazka. Pereira nullified Prochazka’s ground game as he got back to his feet swiftly after getting taken down.
Blachowicz may have managed to keep Pereira on the ground for longer. But the Brazilian hardly took any damage.
Romero tallied all of these factors and came up with a conclusion about what Poatan’s rivals needed to refrain from a unilateral style of fighting so that they don’t get figured out.
“The strategy to beat Alex is doing a well-mixed fight. You can’t do wrestling and wrestling [or] striking and striking.”
Yoel Romero says he’d fight Alex Pereira and explains how to beat him
“The strategy to beat Alex is doing a well mixed fight. You can’t wrestle and wrestle, you can’t do striking and striking.”
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Pereira is a lanky fellow, even for someone as muscular, he’s got really long limbs, which allows him a lot of torque to throw insanely powerful strikes from very short distances. This is why trying to get him in the clinch and getting close to him is a bad idea.
He’s also strangely talented when it comes to wrestling, despite never having professionally trained for it at the highest levels. So needless to say, you have to be a fairly well rounded fighter to stand a chance.
This brings us back to Romero. Despite having retired from the UFC in 2020, after suffering three straight losses, Romero has been vocal about his wish to fight Pereira in the future.
Alex Pereira vs. Yoel Romero tickle your fancy?
Romero joined Bellator MMA after his UFC tenure and is still under contract with them. Hence, he will have to take the road less traveled and rejoin the UFC if he wants to actualize this idea of fighting Poatan.
However, accepting the Cuban’s wish to rejoin the UFC solely depends upon the discretion of the UFC boss, Dana White.
Romero ended his UFC career with three straight losses, so White may not be very keen on granting him wishes. But the 54-year-old’s affinity towards earning huge revenues from his events might have him fixing this fight, provided that he senses enough interest from the UFC community.
