Alex Pereira knocked out Jamahal Hill in the first round of Saturday’s UFC 300 headliner, retaining his title at T-Mobile Arena.
And Daniel Cormier, even though amazed by Pereira’s performance, is somewhat perplexed by it…
Because, as he says – Pereira cannot wrestle.
Specifically, despite being a standout kickboxer before transitioning to MMA, Pereira struggled with takedowns.
For example, he’s been taken down three times by Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 and controlled for over six minutes by Israel Adesanya in their first fight at UFC 281.
Cormier spoke about Pereira’s wrestling skills on his ESPN show “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen:
I’m sitting there at night, going: “How’s he doing this?”
When, with all due respect because Alex and I have a great relationship, he can’t wrestle.He does not know how to wrestle.
Cormier continues:
When they grab his leg, he kind of just falls down.
He can’t wrestle.When he can’t wrestle, I’m like: “How is this happening when he can’t wrestle?”
But he has got this singular skill set that is so good that it does not matter what he can’t do.He’s so good at what he does that he’s now the best in the world.
