UFC 291 is a banger of a card headlined by Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje for the silly but lucrative BMF title. The bad motherf—ers keep coming down the rest of the main card: Salt Lake City will also get to witness Alex Pereira’s light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz. That should be violent.
Perhaps a little too violent, according to Daniel Cormier.
Cormier knows more than most about success at two different weight classes. He dominated at light heavyweight for years before grabbing the heavyweight title and joining the small cadre of UFC champ-champs. During the latest episode of his DC & RC show, he had some words of warning for Pereira as he prepares to face Blachowicz’s power at 205 pounds.
“We have seen Adesanya hurt Pereira in two fights,” Cormier said. “He can’t get hit by Jan Blachowicz. Blachowicz hits so hard, bro. I have seen Błachowicz almost decapitate guys. Luke Rockhold, Dominick Reyes. The way that he was knocking guys out for a while was very scary.”
Cormier’s co-host Ryan Clark countered that negativity, suggesting we might see the best Pereira yet now that he’s no longer cutting massive amounts of weight.
“What does Jan do the first time he tastes Alex’s power?” Clark asked. “Which he has never seen before, with [Pereira] moving up, and we’ve never seen Alex at a heavier weight, which he’ll be able to be with not having to cut to 185?”
Pereira does have that mythical one-punch KO power, and we’ve learned he maintains that power through 25 minutes of fighting. Does that power diminish when he’s fighting guys a weight class up? It’s possible. It’s also possible that his chin will be much more durable at light heavyweight than it was at middleweight.
As it stands, Jan Blachowicz is a slight -150 favorite to beat the +130 Alex Pereira, showing bookies have similar concerns as Daniel Cormier.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
