UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has had a shock and awe grasp over the MMA clique. In a short amount of time, he has had a mammoth rise to fame. However, welterweight title aspirant Joaquin Buckley considers such a monopoly in UFC competition to be harmful.
Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira is a dual-division GLORY and UFC champion. Additionally, the Brazilian is the ninth UFC fighter to achieve double champion status in the promotion. Pereira recently made the #2 spot in UFC Pound-for-pound listings. A favela-born local worker has headlined top venues like MSG and T-Mobile with significant live gate revenue. Nevertheless, Buckley has a different stance.
No disrespect to Alex Pereira because I’m a fan of that motherfu*ker right now, that sh*t is crazy what he’s doing, but it’s still like…how is he able to do that? …It makes [MMA] look st*pid and reta*ded…You’ve got guys now from different professions that are like ‘Ah yeah I can do that sh*t’ and become the UFC champion too, it shouldn’t be like that.
Joaquin Buckley in an exclusive sitdown with Jacob Castro; 🎥: @ParryPunchNews
In his fourth exclusive interview with ParryPunchNews’ Jacob Castro, ‘New Mansa’ talked about many things. The state of the welterweight division, his newfound beef with Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Ian Garry’s win over Michael Venom Page, and so on.
Once viral for his not-so-notorious and sudden callout to welterweight expectant Conor McGregor, now he takes umbrage with Pereira. But as per Joaquin Buckley, it’s not a personal diss but more of a broader MMA issue.
When you have someone that has solely trained MMA in itself and his whole goal as he got started in combat was to be a UFC fighter but then you’ve got another guy who’s coming over transitioning from a different sport still able to beat you, that’s a problem…
Joaquin Buckley further said about Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira
Joaquin Buckley says Alex Pereira is making MMA look “retarded” after becoming a two division champion in just 10 professional fights after crossing over from kickboxing in 2020, and believes it’s a result of poor work ethic within the sport. 😳🏆🏆
“No disrespect to Alex… pic.twitter.com/uaoGJoCe2W
— Parry Punch (@ParryPunchNews) August 7, 2024
The likes of Michael Bisping, Anthony Smith, Jamahal Hill, Chael Sonnen, Kamaru Usman, and others have cast their doubt on Pereira’s lack of ground game. However, it’s the first that someone has been critical of him for having a kickboxing base of origin.
Even Artem Vakhitov, who handed him his topsy-turvy kickboxing title loss at Glory 78, probably won’t say this. Possibly, it is an attempt by the 30-year-old to re-engage attention. As such, Buckley gives a wild insight into the game. However, that doesn’t slow Pereira down.
Alex Pereira makes top bill on 16th annual World MMA Awards
Alex Pereira isn’t just the man to capture UFC middleweight and light heavyweight undisputed gold in just three years. But even on an incumbent reign, ‘Poatan’ has been a prime draw, going 3-0 at the Madison Square Gardens Arena. Two of which were title shots.
UFC champion Alex Pereira (Source: X/express.co.uk)Poatan has dug the promotion out of extremely high-risk spots. His main event stellar performance at UFC 300 and short-notice knockout at UFC 303 were especially noteworthy. Pereira defeated Jiri Prochazka via knockout (head kick, punches) at UFC 303 in his second title defense. Before that, he blew out prodigal LHW champ Hill at the historic April PPV card.
As such, Fighters Only Magazine considers him the top voting option for the Charles ‘Mask’ Lewis Fighter of the Year award. Voting is now open at WorldMMAAwards.com; the list of finalists includes:
Charles ‘Mask’ Lewis Fighter of the Year
- Alex Pereira
- Alexandre Pantoja
- Islam Makhachev
- Kayla Harrison
- Larissa Pacheco
- Liz Carmouche
- Raquel Pennington
- Zhang Weili
Breakthrough Fighter of the Year - Anatoly Malykhin
- Benoit Saint-Denis
- Diego Lopes
- Ian Machado Garry
- Tom Aspinall
Join us in celebrating the greatest sport on the planet and vote for your favorite fighters, coaches, personalities, and more at the 16th Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards! 👊🏆
👉 Get ready to have your say at: 👈 pic.twitter.com/e4k7INMD6g
— Fighters Only (@FightersOnly) August 2, 2024
After a run of extremely impressive performances, Joaquin Buckley might consider him to be an outsider to the essence of MMA. However, Alex Pereira has been the face of it since he inserted himself in 2021. Consequently, the rise to fame might just continue with Pereira aspiring to compete in the heavyweight division as well.
