UFC champion Alex Pereira details why Ciryl Gane is a tougher fight for Jon Jones than Francis Ngannou

UFC champion Alex Pereira has commented on the upcoming championship fight between Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane.

UFC 285 will feature an epic heavyweight title fight between Jones and former interim heavyweight champion Gane. The duo will face off at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the vacant 265-pound title on the line. The event is scheduled to take place on March 4th, 2023.

Check out the official trailer of the upcoming fight pay-per-view event below:

Appearing in a recent with MMAFighting, newly-crowned middleweight king Alex Pereira has chimed in with his thoughts on how the French heavyweight might prove to be challenging for the 265-lbs debutant in their upcoming title fight.

According to 'Poatan', Gane is a tougher fight for Jones than Francis Ngannou would have been. According to Pereira, Gane is "smart" and "scary in a good way", which makes him a more difficult matchup for Jones. Despite this, Pereira believes Jones should still come out on top.

Here is what the Brazilian middleweight champ said:

“This next fight [with Gane] is a bit harder for him, but I also think he wins. It’s a bit more difficult because [Gane] is smart, and a bit more scared in a good way, not to come trading with Jon Jones, which makes him a more difficult fight.”

Alex Pereira will be seen making his first octagon appearance as the middleweight champion at UFC 287. He will fight former champion Israel Adesanya in a highly anticipated rematch of their UFC 281 fight.

Israel Adesanya reveals his only goal against Alex Pereira at #UFC287 😤

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Coach Eugene Bareman talks about upcoming rematch of Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira at UFC 287

Israel Adesanya's head coach Eugene Bareman shared that he would have preferred a little more time before the rematch between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira.

Appearing in an interview with Ariel Helwani for The MMA Hour, Bareman said that he would have liked to bring in a couple of opponents for Israel to warm up on before the fight, but noted that the UFC does not provide that choice:

"If I had a choice, which I quite often don't, then I would probably have waited longer and prepared - just to give Israel a little more time between a stoppage like that and the next fight. In an ideal world, I would have done what they do in boxing. I would've brought in a couple of guys for Israel to warm up on and then fight Pereira, but in the UFC we don't have that choice."

Watch Eugene Bareman's full interview below [ 2:39:10 mark]: