Glory two-division champ Alexsandro
Pereira is not your average training partner.
Scheduled to face former Bellator MMA light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader in
the first April 9 bracket of the grand prix, Lyoto
Machida received two important reinforcements in the final
weeks of his camp. Both Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran and next
light heavyweight contender Glover
Teixeira as well as Glory’s 185- and 205-pound champion
‘Poatan’ Pereira, and the latter spoke with Sherdog right after his
arrival to Florida.
“It’s such an honor to be learning from these two MMA legends,”
Pereira explained. “I came with Glover to help Lyoto, but I’m the
one who is being helped here.”
After his impressive debut in Legacy Fighting Alliance, where he demolished
Thomas
Powell in the first round, Pereira has his sights set on ruling
the kickboxing realm. Pereira is the only man to knock out UFC
middleweight champion Israel
Adesanya, and he revealed that his main plan now is return to
kickboxing, move up one more division and try to be the first
fighter to conquer three belts in the international kickboxing
promotion.
“Right after beating [Artem Vakhitov] last January and conquering
my second Glory belt, I challenged [Glory heavyweight champion]
Rico
Verhoeven,” ‘Poatan’ explained. “I’m the first to conquer belts
in two divisions (at the same time), now I want to challenge myself
once more. I think I have the technical tools to surprise
Rico.”
Pereira also analyzed former rival Adesanya’s first loss in MMA, a
man he faced and beat twice.
“He was clearly afraid of being hit by [UFC light heavyweight
champion Jan
Blachowicz], and that fear made him lose,” Pereira stated
matter-of-factly.
The Glory double champion predicted that while Blachowicz may have
gotten the better of Adesanya, the Polish champ will have problems
defending his belt against Teixeira.
“Glover is a totally different challenge for Jan,” Teixeira’s
friend and training partner said. “He is really focused on getting
the belt, training so hard, and I truly believe he will do
that.”
According to ‘Poatan,’ he and Teixeira will stay in Florida two
more weeks to prepare Machida for his tournament bout against
Bader. The bout is a rematch of one that took place nine years
earlier at UFC on Fox 4, where Machida knocked Bader out in the
second round with a lightning-quick right hand. “The Dragon” and
“Darth” will square off on April 9 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in
Uncasville, Conn., as the main event of
Bellator 256.