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Pereira (13-3) reclaimed his light heavyweight title with a dominant first-round finish over Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320. Rockhold recently weighed in on Pereira’s win over Ankalaev. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champ admitted that he used to hate “Poatan” at one point. However, Rockhold (16-6) can’t help respecting the champ after his last bout. According to Rockhold, even if Pereira lacks in grappling, the Brazilian compensates for it with sheer heart.
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“I used to hate on Alex Pereira, but motherf***er is a gangster,” Rockhold told TMZ Sports. “It’s all about confidence, this is all about balls. He has it. I’m not going to lie, I can’t hate on him anymore. He’s one of the GOATs because he carries the same mindset every f*cking time. He doesn’t have the ground game, but the motherf*cker’s got balls. No more hating. Alex, you’re a gangster. He’s one of the best champs of all time. It’s impressive.”
Pereira’s rise to stardom has been nothing short of phenomenal. Pereira knocked out Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight title in his fourth UFC outing. While he lost the title in the immediate rematch, Pereira moved up to light heavyweight, won the title, and defended it thrice within a year before losing to Ankalaev this past March. The 38-year-old is now eyeing a superfight against Jon Jones at heavyweight at the White House in June 2026.
Meanwhile, Rockhold won the middleweight title against Chris Weidman in 2015 and lost it against Michael Bisping in his first title defense the next year. Rockhold parted ways with the UFC on a three-fight slump in 2022. Rockhold has since suffered a brutal stoppage loss against Mike Perry in Bare Knuckle boxing, won a Karate Combat fight against Joe Schilling, dropped a grappling match against Patrick Downey, and most recently got knocked out in a boxing match against fellow UFC veteran Darren Till this past August.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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