Having sparred with Pereira a year ago when he was still a middleweight, Zhang believes ‘Poatan’ has the power to do big things at heavyweight.
Zhilei Zhang knows what it takes to hang at heavyweight, and he thinks Alex Pereira has it.
Zhang is currently ranked as the fifth best heavyweight boxer in the world, and would probably be higher if financial considerations didn’t consistently lock him out of big fights against the top dogs. That makes him a pretty good judge of striking talent, and he says UFC light heavyweight champion Pereira’s power would translate another division up.
Pereira and Zhang sparred back in March 2023 as “Poatan” prepared for his second UFC fight with Israel Adesanya at middleweight. Even when he was still hitting 185 pounds, “Poatan” was punching above his weight.
What a sparring ! After 4 rounds with zhilei zhang Im very confident for my next fight ! It was a hard and dangerous sparring – exactly what I needed. Now I know even more- I’m ready for 8th of April! pic.twitter.com/1oKCLhbu6b
— Alex “Poatan” Pereira (@AlexPereiraUFC) March 19, 2023
“He’s a good boxer,” Zhang said through a translator on the latest episode of The MMA Hour. “I can tell you he has good reflections, he has good speed and good power. I watch him fight a lot in UFC, he kind of dominates everybody standing and striking.”
There’s been a lot of talk about Pereira moving up to heavyweight to go for three division champion status. These days, it seems like Alex is the only one trying to slow that talk down. In Zhang’s opinion? Pereira would find success.
“I think he has it,” he said. “I think he has the power to translate to heavyweight.”
As for Zhang, he continues to call out Anthony Joshua, who beat him via decision in the 2012 Olympics … although he doesn’t expect “AJ” to respond.
“Look at his previous opponents — Francis Ngannou from the UFC, Robert Helenius,” he said. “I don’t think he has what it takes to stand up against me. The way he picks his opponents says a lot about him.”
Zhang seemed unbothered by the situation. With Saudi Arabia matchmaking a lot of the top heavyweight fights now, he finally has a path to the very top of the division.
“I’m looking at the top-ranked guys,” Zhang said. “Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are definitely ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the world, and I’m looking to fight them, for sure. If you go down the rankings, Agit Kabayel is highly ranked, so that could be on my radar as well. [Or] Parker. Rematch.”
Zhang lost to Joseph Parker via majority decision back in March on the undercard of Ngannou vs. Joshua, and it’s clear he wants that one back. With Fury and Usyk busy fighting each other and then Joshua getting the winner, another go at Parker may be the best option at the moment.