Glover Teixeira will be in Alex Pereira’s corner when “Poatan” defends his light heavyweight belt against knockout artist Khalil Rountree in the UFC 307 main event Saturday, and he likes Pereira’s chances in a potential move to heavyweight.
Pereira teased the idea in the past, but recently said he would be more willing to cut back down to 185 pounds to face champion Dricus du Plessis instead. Teixeira, however, said Pereira’s punching power would translate just fine to UFC’s heaviest division.
“[Pereira’s] knockout power is unbelievable,” Teixeira said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “He’s doing great on the ground, and he’s a natural knockout artist. If he goes up, these guys won’t beat him, man. They would have the same chance the other ones have [at light heavyweight]. Khalil, Jon Jones or Stipe [Miocic]? Ok, I believe Poatan catches them.”
Pereira claimed UFC middleweight gold in November 2022 and lost it in an immediate rematch with Israel Adesanya six months later, then left the division to kick off a 4-0 run at 205 pounds that already includes a trio of knockouts and two title defenses.
Teixeira said the team would focus on getting Pereira “stronger and heavier” for a potential move to Jon Jones’ weight class, but “I’ve trained with many heavyweights, and [Pereira] is that strong.”
A former UFC light light heavyweight champion who has previously fought Jones in the past, Teixeira said he would opt to move up to heavyweight instead of going back to middleweight if he were in Pereira’s shoes. Still, he supports whichever decision “Poatan” makes next.
“Maybe going up would be definitely easier. That would be my opinion, but it’s just an opinion.” Teixeira said. “We would have to see what the doctors say, if he can move down healthy, but I think he would definitely need to lose muscle. There’s no other way. He’s gained a lot of muscle training wrestling. He used to make 185 in GLORY, but he was doing kickboxing only, and he kept growing [with wrestling], and the cut got harder. We have to see what the professionals say. If he wants to go down, we’ll go down together. And we’ll win anywhere.”
Rountree stands across the cage from the champion on Saturday looking to spoil any plans of Pereira holding multiple UFC belts simultaneously, and Pereira’s team is taking him seriously. Poatan moved his entire camp to 8,500-feet above sea level to prepare for Salt Lake City’s high altitude, and won’t be surprised if Rountree changes his entire style to avoid Pereira’s hands and kicks.
“It’s a fight,” Teixeira said. “Even ‘Cro Cop’ [Mirko Filipovic] shot for takedowns. Maybe he’s like, ‘It’s f*cking hard here, I’ll try to take him down.’ Everyone at this level trains jiu-jitsu. That might not be his biggest strength, but he trains it. And he definitely might shoot for a takedown. Poatan trains everything, always, but his threats are on the feet. He’s fast, and he’s explosive.”
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