Brendan Schaub claims Alex Pereira won't beat "a single guy in the top 5" of UFC middleweight division apart from Israel Adesanya
Brendan Schaub recently made a bold claim pertaining to Alex Pereira's chances of competing against the best in the middleweight division. Despite beating Israel Adesanya at UFC 281, Schaub's sees 'Poatan' losing against the other top-five fighters in the division.
Alex Pereira extended his head-to-head record to 3-0 against Israel Adesanya in combat sports, having already beaten 'The Last Stylebender' twice in kickboxing. It took the Brazilian only four fights to ascend to the middleweight throne as the undisputed champion.
Despite that, the way Schaub perceives it, fellow middleweight contenders are salivating at the prospect of facing Pereira in the future.
While reacting to the main event of UFC 281 during an episode of The Schaub Show, the former UFC heavyweight said:
"I'm not taking anything away from Alex, but I don't think he beats a single guy in the top five. After seeing Izzy and Pereira's grappling and the wrestling, I'm sure every guy in the top five are like, 'Dear God! Please give me that guy.'"
Schaub came to his conclusion after observing 'Poatan' get dominated in the grappling department by Adesanya, who's not an accomplished fighter in the sphere himself:
"For those guys that can actually wrestle and have not just one takedown but an arsenal, and have chain wrestling and jiu-jitsu higher than a blue belt, they're foaming at the d**k to get their hands on Pereira."
Catch the podcast episode below:
Israel Adesanya claims he originally planned to pull out of the fight against Alex Pereira
The highly anticipated clash between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira fired on all cylinders and enthralled the 20,845 fans in attendance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The UFC middleweight championship changed hands after Israel Adesanya's three-year long reign. However, the fight-ending sequence had its fair share of controversy after certain sections of the MMA community deemed it an early stoppage.
Alex Pereira before starting 5th round with Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 https://t.co/hmcQWVuvpQ
Adesanya, who came up short in his conquest to avenge the two losses to Alex Pereira in kickboxing, claimed during an appearance on the Flagrant podcast that he had planned to pull out of the fight due to a lingering injury:
“Breaking news, I was gonna pull out of this fight early on…This time with the last fight with [Jared] Cannonier, I hurt my PCL. And that’s the thing that keeps your knee from going backwards. Early in camp, it had some problems. I was gonna pull out early but I was like, 'Nah, I wanna get this done.' Because I am a prideful man…I’ll be da**ed if people say I am a f**king, I’m scared of this guy because I’m not. I knew I wanted to fight."
Watch the full episode below: