Alex Pereira has signalled his interest in dropping down to 185lbs to fight current champion Dricus du Plessis, but Robert Whittaker has explained why he thinks that could be a mistake for the Brazilian star.
“Honestly, I don’t think that’s a good fight for [Pereira],” Whittaker told Submission Radio. “But also, when you move up to light heavyweight, moving back down is tricky. And it’s not like you move up for one fight, he’s stayed up there. He’s fighting up there for a while now. So it would take a lot out of him to get down and Dricus is so strong there.
“Well, Alex gets hit and Dricus likes getting hit. So it’s hard to see someone with the amount of power to stop Dricus from walking forward into you. And Dricus hits hard, we saw that in the fight against Adesanya. Adesanya’s got a really good chin and Dricus was still hurting him enough to make him uncomfortable.”
Whittaker knows all about DDP’s power as he was TKO’d by him at UFC 290 last year, but he never had a chance to go up against Pereira. And he’ll be hoping it stays that way as he’s got his eye on another shot at the 185lb title if he can beat Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 on October and as such won’t be enthusiastic about the idea of the 205lb champ moving back to the division and potentially pushing him back down the pecking order.
