UFC light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira is currently the company’s biggest draw after Conor McGregor and Jon Jones. With his three title defenses in 7 months, Pereira has already bagged the attention of the fanbase and is the company’s newest face despite speaking a word of English. And his last win at UFC 307 despite battling illness has prompted industry experts to compare him to Michael Jordan.
Recently, former UFC contender, Ben Askren asserted that Pereira’s UFC 307 performance was similar to Jordan’s famous flu game in the 1997 finals.
“Pereira though, he’s super super active which makes him a superstar, other champions should probably take note of that and I think it builds up stories, you think about Michael Jordan you know the most famous flu game.”
The former Chicago Bulls’ legendary 6’6 guard Michael Jordan, before game 5 of the NBA finals in 1997 is known to have fallen violently ill and somehow still managed to score 38 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Pereira, in his third camp of the year in seven months, was also terribly ill leading up to the fight and had been on antibiotics.
Drawing a close parallel between the NBA great and the former Glory Kickboxing champion, Askren who joined Daniel Cormier on his popular YouTube channel, lauded the 37-year-old.
‘Poatan‘ was seen coughing in his corner in between rounds and later revealed that this was his toughest camp, battling with a fractured rib and a nasty fever. However, much like MJ he weathered the storm and added one more to his legacy with a clinical performance.
Now, Askren is not the only one who saw a similarity between the Brazilian and MJ, fan-favorite Good Guy/ Bad Guy host, Chael Sonnen also added to Pereira’s legend, mentioning how he outclassed the NBA great being a two-sport athlete.
Sonnen places Pereira over Jordan
Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira is the man of the hour after his UFC 307 performance against fellow light heavyweight, Khalil Rountree. The man quite literally transformed a rather lackluster, bland fight card into a thriller.
While Sonnen was as impressed by it as anybody else, he made it a point to clarify that his comparison stemmed from the fact that Pereira has now been a world champion in two different sports- kickboxing and MMA.
Although oddly similar, Sonnen asserted that they are two very different sports and Pereira had mastered both, a feat he claimed even Jordan himself couldn’t emulate despite his attempted MLB ambition.
Jordan, following his early retirement in 1997 transitioned to baseball but managed to make a mark for himself. Pereira on the other hand did more than just make an impression.
In fact, after capturing both the middleweight & the light heavyweight titles at Glory Kickboxing, the 37-year-old did the same, capturing both the MW & LHW belts in UFC in two years! Now, that’s greatness!
