Former UFC heavyweight, Brendan Schaub stated that newly crowned UFC middleweight champion, Alex Pereira, couldn’t beat anyone in the top five of the division.
Last Saturday, Pereira would knockout and defeat Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 281, capturing the 185lb belt.
Pereira is now a UFC champion in only eight professional MMA fights and with only four in the promotion. Whilst this is an incredible achievement, fighter-turned-podcaster Brendan Schaub isn’t impressed, mainly stemming from Pereira’s grappling skills.
I’m not taking anything away from Alex, but I don’t think he beats a single guy in the Top 5,” Schaub said on his YouTube channel. “Robert Whittaker, after he saw Izzy and Pereira’s grappling and the wrestling, I’m sure every guy in the Top 5 are like, ‘Dear God! Please give me that guy.’ For those guys that can actually wrestle and have not just one takedown but an arsenal and have chain wrestling and they have jiu-jitsu higher than a blue belt, they’re foaming at the f**k to get their hands on Pereira.”
Schuab would even go as far to say that the UFC will now protect Pereira and that welterweight Khamzat Chimaev would ‘mop the floor’ and ‘beat the s**t’ out of him.
“The UFC knows this, and they’re going to protect him,” Schaub continued. “Like Khamzat tweeted out, ‘I’ll fight at 185, I’ll be your champ!’ Now, if UFC wanted Khamzat to be a superstar at 170 and 185, your next fight is gonna be Khamzat vs. Alex Pereira. Khamzat beats the s— out of him. Khamzat mops the floor. Again, I’m not taking anything away from Alex, it’s all about matchups and styles and that’s a complete nightmare for him.
“UFC’s not going to do it because that discredits Izzy’s entire resume. If Izzy never gets that fourth fight, second fight in MMA against Alex, and Alex fights again and loses, they have to have him fight Izzy or you’re never hearing from him again, I promise.”