Daniel Cormier can’t fathom UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira’s rise to the top when he sees a big hole in his game.
Pereira (10-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) knocked out Jamahal Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in the first round of Saturday’s UFC 300 headliner to retain his title at T-Mobile Arena.
Cormier is surprised how successful Pereira has been when he questions his grappling abilities. Pereira, a standout kickboxer before MMA, was taken down three times by Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 and controlled for more than six minutes by Israel Adesanya in their first fight at UFC 281.
“I’m sitting there at night going, ‘How’s he doing this when, with all due respect because Alex and I have a great relationship, he can’t wrestle. He does not know how to wrestle,” Cormier said on his ESPN show “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen.
“When they grab his leg, he kind of just falls down. He can’t wrestle. When he can’t wrestle, I’m like, ‘How is this happening when he can’t wrestle?’ But he has got this singular skillset that is so good that it does not matter what he can’t do. He’s so good at what he does that he’s now the best in the world.”
Pereira, a former middleweight champion, now holds wins over former champions Sean Strickland, Adesanya, Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka, and Hill.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
Daniel Cormier amazed by UFC champ Alex Pereira’s success ‘when he can’t wrestle’