Tag: Anthony Johnson

Darren Till has compared Alex Pereira’s punching power to that of the late Anthony Johnson following his UFC 281 victory over Israel Adesanya.

Johnson was renowned for his devastating knockout power which saw him TKO/KO 17 opponents throughout the 23 wins he amassed over the course of his career.

In a similar manner to which Johnson could shut the lights out of his opponents, new middleweight champion, Alex Pereira, carries the same venom in his hands. 3 of his 4 victories have come via TKO or KO since signing with the promotion. Most notably Pereira’s devastating power saw him become the first person to finish Israel Adesanya inside an MMA octagon en route to his title success at UFC 281.

Taking note of the devastating power the new champion has is fellow middleweight contender, Darren Till. Speaking to Michael Bisping on an episode of the ‘Believe You Me’ podcast, Darren Till related the power of Pereira to that of the late, great, Anthony Johnson:

“I think Pereira is a big, strong, massive, slow middleweight,” Till said. “He’s slow, his strikes aren’t devastatingly fast, but my God, does that man carry power. I think I’m two times, three times faster than him — Adesanya as well — but he just needs to land.

“It’s like, rest in peace, I don’t even want to say his name because it’s a very sad [time], but Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, I want to give my condolences, but I’m actually going to give the example of him because he is the best example of it: That man only had to touch a little finger on your head and you’d be knocked out. I think Pereira has that type of thing.”

Darren Till Begins Title Resurgence At UFC 282 Against Driscus Du Plessis

Liverpool’s own, Darren Till, will begin his own resurgence toward the middleweight title when he faces up-and-coming contender, Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 282.

A long way from the top as the former welterweight title challenger looks to improve upon his past form, Till knows the challenges he faces once he gets there. Despite Pereira having taken out of the most dominant champions the middleweight division has seen in recent times, ‘The Gorilla’ still believes the new champion would have a difficult task at hand if he were to take on either Khamzat Chimaev or his previous opponent, Robert Whittaker.

“He’s young in the sport, but I saw Khamzat call him out and I was like, ‘Khamzat would definitely take him down within 30 seconds,’ yeah, it’s a fight, but that’s not a fight Pereira is ready for,” Till said.

“And Whittaker doesn’t just wrestle, he uses his strikes in his wrestling. He did that to me in the fifth round. We went four rounds of just making each other twitch, and then in the fifth round he used strikes into a takedown to get me. At that time, I couldn’t be taken down. I think he’d still have some trouble with Pereira because Pereira is quite strong.” (Transcribed by MMAFighting)

Do you believe Darren Till will beat Driscus Du Plessis at UFC 282?