Heavyweight boxer Zhilei Zhang was so impressed with Alex Pereira’s skills that he wants to train with him for his next fight.
As UFC light heavyweight champion Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira poises a big-money move up to heavyweight, the iconic Chinese boxer has given his ‘Big Bang’ official seal of approval.
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Zhilei Zhang talks sparring session with UFC champion Alex Pereira
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on Wednesday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Zhilei ‘Big Bang’ Zhang recalled what it was like to spar with former UFC middleweight and now-light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
“We sparred once [for] 4 rounds, so that day it was 12 rounds for me, and I had two guys before Alex went in the ring,” explained the colossal Chinese bruiser, adding how “He’s [Alex Pereira] a good boxer.
“I can tell you he has good reflections; he has good speed and good power. I watch him fight a lot, in UFC, he kind of dominates everybody standing, and striking.”
Whilst Pereira himself has a host of potential next opponents waiting in the wings, including Polish powerhouse Jan Blachowicz and Russian wrestler Magomed Ankalaev, ‘Poatan’ has also teased a move up to heavyweight.
Poignantly, Zhang believes that Pereira would find the same success at the higher weight class as he found at both 185lbs and 205lbs, simply stating: “I think he has it… I think he has the power to translate to heavyweight.”
In fact, Pereira moved so well in front of the heavyweight boxer that the 41-year-old would like to retain the Brazilian superstar for his next training camp, stating that “I would love to welcome him to my camp and learn from each other.”
And that’s not just politeness on the part of Zhang, having told Mirror Fighting pretty much the same thing in an interview just after the sparring session took place back in May 2023.
“It was great to share the ring with him. I think it is a great opportunity for me to learn what is outside of the boxing ring and improve my skill on the other side.
“He is a great UFC fighter and I look at it as a learning process. We both learn from each other, and he is a great guy.”
Alex Pereira himself also reacted to the sparring shortly before his title rematch with Israel Adesanya, writing on X: “What a sparring! After 4 rounds with Zhilei Zhang I’m very confident for my next fight. It was a hard and dangerous sparring – exactly what I needed.”
The last man to beat Alex Pereira before UFC sends ‘Poatan’ a warning
Whilst Alex Pereira’s next opponent will likely be one of either Blachowicz or Ankalaev, there’s another of Poatan’s old rivals waiting patiently in the wings for his chance to make a lightning-fast ascent up the UFC rankings.
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, former GLORY kickboxing champion Artem Vakhitov teased, “For sure I want Alex Pereira and everybody is interested in that and there has been a lot of media attention around this.
“Everybody knows Pereira clearly cleaned out all of the division and has stopped all of them,” he said of the light-heavyweight division.
“Potentially now there’s only one opponent left, Magomed Ankalaev. I’m sure that the organization are very interested in getting me as soon as possible for this fight because now they need someone to stop him.
“The same situation was with Adesanya, so they just wanted to get someone who could stop Adesanya and Pereira came and did that. I think that could work for me as well.”
Whilst MMA fans have become accustomed to seeing Pereira in action every few months, the Brazilian kickboxing also recently hinted that he’d like some well-deserved rest and recovery ahead of a November or December return.