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Ex-UFC Star Shares Blueprint on How to Beat Alex Pereira: “You Can’t Do Striking”

Souvik Roy
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Ex-UFC Star Shares Blueprint on How to Beat Alex Pereira: “You Can’t Do Striking”

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.”

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.

Post Edited By:Smrutisnat Jena

About the author

Souvik Roy

Souvik Roy

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The coveted boxing bout between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson in 2002 was the first combat sports event that Souvik ever witnessed. However, he fell for the UFC when he knew about it in 2010. After starting as an occasional viewer back then, Souvik has been watching UFC events almost regularly from late 2017. He began his career as a UFC(MMA) and combat sports journalist in the year 2022 after gathering a lot of valuable knowledge about MMA and a few other combat sports disciplines. He has written more than 1300 articles about various UFC and other combat sports events prior to joining The SportsRush. Apart from being a journalist, Souvik is also an ardent fan of the UFC. Hence, he always looks to have conversations about the same with others. He has a deep affinity for striking part of MMA and other combat sports and Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier is the warrior of his choice in the current UFC roster. Souvik also serves as the Lead Vocalist of a rock band during his time free from publishing reports.

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