Towards Widespread Perception, Joe Rogan & Royce Gracie Vet Alex Pereira’s Grappling – “Bought His Black Belt From Glover”

UFC mild heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is the most important Brazilian famous person in all of MMA in the mean time. Having basically speedrun the UFC to turn into a two-division champion in solely his seven fights within the promotion, the previous kickboxer stands on the cusp of turning into probably the primary three-division champion of the division following heavyweight champion Jon Jones floating a attainable bout in opposition to him.

A former two-division Glory kickboxing champion, ‘Poatan’s lethal (albeit unorthodox) hanging is famous and has seen him depart a path of knocked-out opponents on his solution to the highest of the UFC. The one query that has dogged him always, nonetheless, is his grappling (or lack thereof). Even UFC commentator Joe Rogan has voiced considerations about ‘Poatan’s floor recreation.

Joe Rogan thinks Alex Pereira must battle an elite wrestler

Whereas Pereira often is the greatest Brazilian blended martial artist on the earth, Royce Gracie is the unique Brazilian famous person, the winner of the very first UFC occasion again in 1993. His success in opposition to greater males within the no-rules, no-holds-barred old-school UFC is what made BJJ so well-liked and led to the event of MMA as a sport.

And Gracie joined Joe Rogan on episode #156 of the JRE MMA Show, the place they mentioned one thing that’s considerably of a specialty for Gracie: grappling. To be extra particular, the grappling talents of Gracie’s compatriot Alex Pereira.

Rogan advised the BJJ maestro that he could be very fascinated about seeing what would occur if Pereira fought a world-class wrestler (which ‘Poatan’ has but to do in his three-year UFC stint). He identified that since Pereira had earned a black belt in BJJ final month (following his UFC 300 victory over Jamahal Hill), and the champ’s coach (and good friend) Glover Teixeira was waxing eloquent about ‘Poatan’s grappling, a battle in opposition to an elite grappler would reply any questions on Pereira’s grappling expertise.

“With Pereira, I need to see what occurs if he fights in opposition to, like an elite wrestler, or [a] actually good [grappler] who is de facto good at takedowns, who is aware of Jiu-Jitsu, . And we haven’t seen that but. However he trains a variety of grappling too. He’s simply obtained his black belt from Glover from Glover, which is big. Glover says he’s like superb on the bottom,” Rogan advised Gracie. We could also be very near getting the reply, as ‘Poatan’ has now issued a grappling problem to Anthony Smith.

Poatan able to put his grappling to the take a look at with $50k problem

Whereas it’s at the moment unknown how good the previous champion kickboxer is on the bottom now, he’s definitely (very) assured. The 205-pound has lately issued a problem to #10 mild heavyweight Anthony Smith, identified for his floor recreation. The latter has repeatedly claimed that Pereira doesn’t have a well-rounded recreation, and was good at just one thing- his hanging.

Pereira apparently took nice offense to this characterization of his grappling expertise and has issued a  $50k grappling problem to the American, providing to start out with ‘Lionheart’s hooks in him. And Smith has accepted Pereira’s problem. This definitely could be one solution to clear Rogan’s doubts about his floor recreation. And if Pereira is profitable in his grappling match with the previous title contender, regardless of the favorable phrases he has given ‘Lionheart’, he will definitely have come a great distance since somebody took him to the bottom.

The final time an opponent selected to take Pereira to the bottom was Jan Blachowicz at UFC 293, which was Pereira’s first foray at 205 kilos. Within the very first spherical, the Pole took ‘Poatan’ to the bottom, the place the latter’s lack of expertise on the bottom was obvious to see, with Blachowicz having management for the whole lot of the 4 minutes fifty seconds they had been on the bottom.

Since then, nonetheless, the Brazilian has earned a black belt in BJJ, and is so assured that he’s keen to wager a BJJ professional $50k to battle and defeat him. The proof, as they are saying, is within the pudding. And till Pereira proves his grappling, both on the mat in opposition to Smith or within the octagon, the questions will persist.