Alex Pereira may not have defeated Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, but one icon saw enough in his performance to think that he could compete with Jon Jones.
On Saturday night, inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, the Brazilian fell short in his effort to retain his championship belt.
However, Pereira remained in high spirits, dancing with Chuck Liddell backstage, and is now excited for his next match-up.
And while a showdown with ‘Bones’ looks off the table, at least for the time being, it might not be quite as dead in the water as fans might think.
WOW: Magomed Ankalaev praised for his ‘good game plan’ against Alex Pereira by a UFC champion
Chael Sonnen says Alex Pereira could wrestle with Jon Jones
Chael Sonnen was really impressed by the performance Alex Pereira produced against Magomed Ankalaev.
While the former Glory Kickboxing world champion didn’t win, ‘The American Gangster’ believes the São Paulo brawler proved beyond doubt that he knows how to wrestle, making a clash with the UFC heavyweight King, much more enticing.
In a video uploaded to his YouTube, the former world title challenger said: “You don’t get very far when you start talking about Alex Pereira vs Jon Jones. You just don’t get there, because we know that Jon can throw him down and beat him up.
“Like, that’s something Jon does really well. He can throw people down and then beat them up.
“Well, you watch this fight, and you go, ‘Hey, it turns out that old Alex Pereira isn’t so easy to take down’. Alex Pereira really showed some stuff. That entire narrative that he can’t wrestle and he can’t defend is now gone.”
Alex Pereira shocked Daniel Cormier with his wrestling ahead of UFC 313
While Pereira would’ve been working on his wrestling throughout training camp, he had to put his skills on full display when Daniel Cormier attempted to take him down.
It’s almost become a tradition that ‘DC’ will shoot for a single leg whenever he sees ‘Poatan’ in the flesh.
Therefore, it came as no surprise that the American charged towards the legend the moment he laid his eyes on him.
However, Cormier got an almighty surprise with what happened when he grabbed ahold of Pereira.