UFC champ Jamahal Hill doubts Alex Pereira packs same punch at light heavyweight

UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill doesn’t see Alex Pereira’s power having the same impact at 205 pounds.

Former middleweight champion Pereira (7-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) makes his 205-pound debut against Jan Blachowicz (29-9-1 MMA, 12-6 UFC) in the UFC 291 co-main event July 29 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

Pereira was able to knock out top contender Sean Strickland then dethrone Israel Adesanya with a fifth-round TKO to capture the middleweight title. But after losing to Adesanya in the rematch, “Poatan” has elected to move up a division, and Hill expects 205 pounders to absorb his punches better.

“His power is not going to count for as much as it was at the middleweight division,” Hill said in an interview with Middle Easy. “At the middleweight division, whenever he hit them, they had to really, really address it. They couldn’t really roll it off. It made it harder to counter just because of the kind of power that he carried at middleweight. I don’t think that’ll be the same case at 205. He has to be more of a tactician.”

Hill, who is projected to make his first title defense against Jiri Prochazka, sees the winner of Pereira vs. Blachowicz as next in line for a title shot. He’s leaning toward Blachowicz winning.

“I think the winner of that is definitely a No. 1 contender,” Hill said. “Who do I think wins the fight? I don’t know. I’d give the edge in the fight to Jan for the simple fact that Jan can strike. He has the ability to outstrike Pereira, plus the ability to take him down, tie him up, wear on him, and beat him up if he’s able to expose the lack of grappling in his game.

“On the other hand, Alex is Alex. He’s got ‘Poatan’ stone hands. He can land big shots, he can easily clip Jan and put him away. He’s a big dude, too. He wasn’t a small middleweight. He’s gonna have some good size, some good length in there. If he can get his strikes going to work, he can probably take Jan out.”

Hill also sees light heavyweights posing a bigger threat to Pereira than middleweights did.

“I think the mixed martial arts skills, as far as well roundedness, being able to go from striking to grappling, is more well rounded in the 205 division than it is in the middleweight division,” Hill said. “If you look at it, a lot of the guys in the middleweight division, they’re primarily specialists.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 291.