Paulo Costa believes Alex Pereira is out of his depth at heavyweight
· Yahoo Sports
Paulo Costa hasn’t been so complimentary of Alex Pereira‘s historic pursuit.
‘Poatan’ lost the chance to become the first fighter under the UFC banner to win titles in three different weight classes. Having won at both middleweight and light heavyweight, the South American stepped up to heavyweight to compete against the titan’s of the sport. A win over Ciryl Gane is all that stood in the way of greatness, but Pereira wasn’t able to get it done.
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Sharing his views on the defeat, Alex Pereira’s countryman, Paulo Costa, revealed why he doesn’t see Pereira as a heavyweight.
“I’ll start with the most basic thing, something simple that I think is the most obvious. I don’t think he has the body type- at least he didn’t have the body type, for a heavyweight,” Costa told Mr. Gamble. “I think he rushed into taking that fight. He should have prepared better, both physically and technically, you know?”
“Obviously, we’re talking about it now, which is easy. The result has already happened. We’re all engineers after the job is done. Gane is more natural. Without a doubt, without a doubt. It was obvious. It was obvious. Another thing is that he was clearly better prepared, even visually.”
Costa was also unconvinced by Pereira’s ability to compete against the elite at heavyweight. The calmness he held in the lower divisions was gone, replaced by a much less technically sound fighter.
“Now I’ll also tell you this: [Gane] was better prepared during the fight as well,” Costa continued. “You could see him more in the flow, relaxed, with a calm expression, while Alex was hurting, hurting his foot very quickly. And then, moving away from the physical side, technically it was also… Alex couldn’t find anything against Gane. Gane would get in, get out; he wasn’t getting hit, and he was landing.”
“Alex generally doesn’t fight well against southpaws. He lost to Ankalaev, who is a southpaw, and now he lost to Gane, who is a southpaw. Generally, Alex has a bit of difficulty against southpaws.”
“I think one of the reasons is because Alex’s calf kick, with Alex’s rear leg, when he kicks the opponent’s lead leg, it’s very effective. The opponent gets hurt and starts becoming more square rather than staying side-on so they don’t take the calf kick. And then Alex benefits from that very well, he does that very well and capitalizes with his boxing. Or even with kicks… when he faces a skilled southpaw, like Gane, who moves a lot, then it becomes difficult, adding that to the physical side of things, you know?”
To replicate his dominance in the sport, Paulo Costa believes Alex Pereira needs to have a shift in strategy. Instead of chasing the dream of becoming the first three-division world champion, Costa advises Pereira to take a step back.
A move back down to light heavyweight, where his frightening demeanor remained, is the best way forward, claims Costa.
“I think he should go back to 93kg,” Costa stated. “That’s what I think. But it suits him more. However, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think he… well, I don’t know. It could happen, you know? He could go back. He could go back.”
“I think he does better at 93kg than at heavyweight. Despite being a big guy and all that, he has to prepare better. Jon Jones took more than a year, you know, to move up a weight class. I think two years.”