The Joe Rogan Experience host questioned why it’s legal for fighters to cut massive amounts of weight to squeeze into lower divisions.
New middleweight champion Alex Pereira is a monster of a man that towers over people like his teammate Glover Teixeira, who fights at 205 pounds. How does the Brazilian knockout artist make middleweight? By cutting over 25 pounds to get there.
A picture posed to Pereira’s socials the day he stepped into the cage to beat Israel Adesanya for the third time had “Poatan” weighing 95.6kg, or 211.4 pounds. That’s 26.4 pounds more than the championship weight limit for middleweight, and he may of been even heavier when stepping into the cage on UFC 281 fight night.
In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Jackass star and fight fan Steve-O asked Rogan whether it was true Pereira was really 220 pounds against Adesanya.
“He could have been, yeah,” Rogan replied. “He certainly gets above that in-between fights. And he has a hard time making 185. It’s a bulls— thing. It’s basically sanctioned cheating. It really is. But everybody does it.”
“[Israel Adesanya] barely does it,” he added. “When Izzy moved up to fight Jan Blachowicz at light heavyweight he weighed 194, which is crazy cuz Blachowicz is a giant light heavyweight. Blachowicz is big powerful guy.”
In the end, Rogan expects the big weight cut to be a hindrance for Pereira.
“He’s so big for the weightclass, which really wears you out, that weight cut,” Rogan said. “It’s a big weight cut. And with wrestling, he’s gonna have issues. Because he’s not a grappler, that’s not his forte. And he’s getting better at grappling, but when Izzy takes you to the ground and Izzy controls you, that’s not his forte either.”
As for the controversial standing stoppage in the fifth round after “Poatan” had “The Last Stylebender” hurt, Rogan is cool with it.
“I don’t think Pereira was going to stop,” Joe said. “He had more time, Izzy was stationary, and Pereira was gonna hit him with some big shots. We don’t need to see Izzy with his eyes rolled back into his head, flat out unconscious. I think it was a good stoppage. I can see where he’d be upset about it to, and I can see where other fights have gone on longer, and they have. But it’s a subjective call and [referee] Marc Goddard is one of the best in the world, he’s top two or three.”
As it stands, UFC president Dana White has said it’s quite possible Israel Adesanya gets an immediate rematch against Alex Pereira. But a few things need to work out. Adesanya has said he needs to take some time off after three fights in 10 months to recover and fix some health issues. In a sport where timelines mean everything, that could result in a “Poatan” defense against someone else at 185 pounds next.
Who would you want to see across from Pereira, Maniacs? Let us know in the comments.