Alex Pereira is famous for his knockout power, but he might be crossing a bridge too far at heavyweight.
That’s what veteran coach Ray Longo thinks after watching Pereira lose to two-time interim—and now undisputed—heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane at UFC White House this past June. Pereira was attempting to become the UFC’s first-ever three-division titleholder, but succumbed to strikes in the second round of their co-main event clash.
Up next for Pereira, he faces another heavy hitter in Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335 on Dec. 12, and Longo wonders if the former light heavyweight and middleweight has finally bitten off more than he can chew.
“I love Alex,” Longo said on the Anik & Florian Podcast. “I really love him as a fighter, but I think it maybe takes a little bit of an eye—forget the head, the illegal shots, they were horrible—but I saw nothing before that that lets me believe that he could beat him in a rematch. I just saw the size difference, the way he was moving. Alex, it’s Bobby Green-esque. He’s got the power, but he keeps his hands down.
“When you get with these bigger guys now, can he take the power coming back is the problem because you even watch his sparring, it’s not like he’s a guy that doesn’t get hit. He likes to get hit and come back. These guys, I think, might be too big. They’re really, really big guys. I don’t know. We’ll see how he does with Sergei, but I think that’s going to be a tough fight, too, because the way his style is, I don’t think he can afford to get hit by these guys. At 185, big difference. 250, I don’t know.”
Pereira, a former kickboxing star, has authored numerous famous finishes during his five-year UFC career, including knockouts over Israel Adesanya, Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka, Sean Strickland, and Magomed Ankalaev. As Longo points out, “Poatan” has faced his share of danger in these matchups, but more often than not has ended his fights as the last man standing.
Against Gane, Pereira was unable to gets his offense going before being caught in the second round.
“Ciryl Gane looked like a world beater in that fight before those head shots,” Longo said. “I mean, I think [Pereira] got knocked down with a jab, if I’m not mistaken, right? It wasn’t even like a power punch, but these guys are huge.”
Pavlovich has long been a staple in the heavyweight contender conversation and currently stands at No. 5 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings. A win over Pavlovich could potentially propel the popular Pereira into another title shot in 2027.
He also runs the risk of being served another reminder that heavyweights are a different kind of beast.
“God bless him, but I’ll tell you these guys really—It’s a big difference,” Longo said. “That Ciryl Gane fight, I thought was going to go completely different. It didn’t go the way I saw it going, not in a good way for Alex.”
