Veteran former UFC heavyweight star, Alistair Overeem has speculated that the current success enjoyed by incumbent light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira is not destined to continue for too long.
Overeem, a former undisputed heavyweight title challenger, made his final Octagon walk over three years ago, suffering a second round knockout loss against fellow European talent, Alexander Volkov.
Since calling time on his combat sports career, Overeem made a brief outing in kickboxing under the GLORY banner, landing an initial knockout win over fellow striking kingpin, Badr Hari, before the result was overturned to an official ‘No Contest’.
As for Alex Pereira, the fellow former GLORY Kickboxing star – managed to land two titles in the promotion, before going on to mint himself as a two-division champion since his move to the UFC.
And today booked for his latest outing in the organization, Sao Paulo knockout artist, Pereira is slated to headline UFC 307 at the beginning of October, taking on surging finishing contender, Khalil Rountree in a bid to defend his light heavyweight crown for a third consecutive occasion.
Alistair Overeem doubts Alex Pereira’s success lasts long term
However, sharing his thoughts on Pereira’s high-profile success in the UFC, Overeem admitted that while the promotional star was “interesting” – he likely claimed his prowess would not last long term.
“He’s interesting,” Alistair Overeem said of Alex Pereira on the Jaxxon Podcast. “Former GLORY (Kickboxer) – impressive resume, I thought. Fought (Israel) Adesanya I think twice over there, followed Adesanya into UFC, and then he’s winning his fights without any grappling, without any ground.”
“So, I kinda looked into it – I don’t see a kind of long term for him,” Alistair Overeem explained. “Because he just doesn’t have that ground. Even though he’s strong, he’s big, but you need to also need to sharp, right? You need to be good – you need to take other people down, it’s important. I mean, he is very good in the stand up, but I don’t know. I’m sceptical.”