Alex Pereira might have never fought at heavyweight but according to UFC veteran Chael Sonnen, he is already the best heavyweight of all time. In a very short period of time, Poatan has cemented himself at the top of the UFC food chain with his elite striking and consistency.
In fact, to secure his position among the MMA GOATs, all that is left for him to do is to go up in weight and become a three-division UFC champion.
Now that is easier said than done but Uncle Chael is in absolute awe of the UFC light heavyweight champion, despite the fact that he had picked Khalil Rountree to beat him in their last fight.
In the latest episode of the Good Guy/ Bad Guy Show, former UFC champion Daniel Cormier asked Sonnen who his UFC Heavyweight GOAT was.
Sonnen brought up Poatan’s activity in the octagon and superior striking skills and claimed that he was better than both Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones.
“I’m gonna ride with Alex Pereira….The reason I say Pereira by the way, it’s a match up issue. I don’t think those guys (Ngannou and Jones) can strike with him….You wanna know who the best striker in the heavyweight division is? It’s Alex Pereira.”
According to the former middleweight, if either of them fought the Brazilian, they would be forced to strike with him. And at the moment, he does not see either of them being able to out-strike him.
Meanwhile, Sonnen isn’t the only person praising ‘Poatan‘ for the historic 2024 that he’s had. Even BMF champion Max Holloway thinks the Brazilian should win the Fighter of the Year award.
Pereira’s got FOTY in the bag, claims BMF champ
Max Holloway, like many in the MMA community, has a lot of praise for Alex Pereira. The Brazilian fighter has fought three times in 2024 and 4 times in the last 12 months, making him one of the most active fighters in the organization.
That is an unreal activity, especially for a defending champion. In this time, he has also taken a short-notice fight and has shown up with his UFC gold and those stone hands and saved the bacon of many PPVs.
In a recent interview with Kevin Iole, Holloway revealed how all this should be enough to get him the Fighter of the Year award,
“I don’t know man, I don’t know if they could do that. The way Alex took fights, I mean the fastest guy to defend his title with three title defenses. That’s a hard man to beat… I think Alex Pereira got that one in the bag already.”
Pereira is definitely miles ahead of the competition when it comes to Fighter of the Year. Holloway himself has had an amazing year with two major wins against top opponents and a spectacular KO of Justin Gaethje that will never be forgotten!
But unfortunately for him, ‘Poatan’ just can’t seem to get enough of defending his title and knocking his opponents out cold.
