Daniel Cormier is not going to bet against Alex Pereira as he moves to the heavyweight division. The former UFC double champ, in an interview with MMA Junkie, has opined that the UFC light heavyweight champ will enjoy a lot of “success” as a heavyweight as well.
‘Poatan’s’ superb performances after moving to the UFC’s light heavyweight division have Cormier convinced of his invincibility. ‘DC’ also opined that the 36-year-old would face a few challenges after moving up a weight class but that shouldn’t stop him from enjoying considerable “success” in the division.
“I’m past betting against Alex Pereira. He has proven he can do whatever he wants. With him at heavyweight, there’s gonna be some issues. But to think that Alex will not find success [as a heavyweight] would be a massive mistake.”
Following the announcement of his intention to move to heavyweight, Pereira has found thousands of supporters, including fans and colleagues. Many would even like to see him fight undisputed heavyweight champion, Jon Jones. And while DC firmly believes Poatan will be successful, he isn’t the first one to predict so.
Joe Rogan, the first to call Pereira’s heavyweight characteristics
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan was the first to recognize that Pereira was a heavyweight considering his walk-around weight. The 56-year-old also talked about Pereira’s resting weight in one of the episodes of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’.
Rogan took note of how much Pereira weighed during his UFC 281 scrap against Israel Adesanya. Rogan was startled to find that ‘Poatan’ weighed 219 lbs on the fight night, despite making the middleweight limit of 185 lbs just a couple of days ago. Amidst his discussion with ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley, Rogan said,
“He’s a fuc*ing heavyweight”.
It would appear Rogan had already visualized Pereira fighting as a heavyweight back when the rest of the world was sleeping on it.
But the situation has changed now. Now only have UFC experts accepted him as a heavyweight title contender, even the champion Jon Jones has had to accept his ascension as a potential rival.
That said, we will have to wait and see if Poatan’s success in the light heavyweight division translates into another success story when he moves up a weight class.
