Glover Teixeira: Alex Pereira ‘More Powerful Than Any Heavyweight I Trained With’

If any further proof of Alex
Pereira’s power needed, it has arrived in the form of
confirmation from Glover
Teixeira.

The pace at which Pereira rose to
Ultimate Fighting Championship stardom is arguably
unprecedented. Pereira had just four MMA fights to his name when he
made his UFC debut in 2021. The Brazilian went on to defeat former
Glory Kickboxing foe Israel
Adesanya to win the middleweight title within a year of his UFC
debut.

While “Poatan” lost the title in their immediate rematch, he has
since established a light heavyweight title reign. Teixeira, who is
Pereira’s coach and mentor, lost the light heavyweight title via
submission against Jiri
Prochazka and retired after a subsequent failed bid for the
vacant belt against Jamahal
Hill. Pereira went on to avenge both losses, winning the vacant
title against Prochazka before defending it against Hill. He also
defeated Prochazka in a rematch at UFC
303. All three of those aforementioned victories came via
stoppage.

Next, Pereira will defend his light heavyweight strap against
Khalil
Rountree in the main event at UFC 307
on Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The champ
has also expressed interest in moving back down to middleweight to
challenge Dricus Du
Plessis for the 185-pound title in the future. Teixeira was
recently asked if a potential move up to heavyweight is also in the
cards for his friend and pupil. The former champ believes Pereira
is capable of anything that he puts his mind to, including moving
up to heavyweight. While Teixeira acknowledges that a lot of people
have knockout power at heavyweight, he believes Pereira is on
another level.

“To be honest, I’m confident that he can do anything he wants,”
Teixeira recently told The Schmo. “He can fight at
heavyweight and destroy the heavyweights there. Because the
strength, the ability to read the opponents, and [go] in and out,
and the power, he’s more powerful than any heavyweight I trained
with. Of course, any heavyweight, Tom
Aspinall, Stipe [Miocic] have KO power as well. But Alex is way
up there.”