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Isn't it just going to play out exactly the same as the first one?
They should do Alex Pereira vs Tom Aspinall
- Thread starter Luffy
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Isn't it just going to play out exactly the same as the first one?
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I'm hoping not, but it could.
I believe Pereira will have more confidence due to stopping the takedown in the first fight, and open up with strikes a bit more. That could change the fight, or it could just give Ankalaev opportunities to get takedowns this time.
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It's weird that later Tom said that he doesn't really think about Alex that much and that he "won't keep trying to trash his name if he's not interested in moving to HW and that he respects him and his job in LHW...". Weird as Alex Pereira had openly called out Tom and the UFC said that Alex was on to fight Tom Aspinall as well in UFC 300 and UFC 303 if everyone was ok with it. It seems something held up...
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That's it mate, the threat and the constantly having to defend at least partly nullifies his offense. He could game plan better I suppose. Work on some short range knees.
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Not necessarily. Alex learned that he didn't have to respect Ank's wrestling quite as much and that he couldn't just rely on calf kicks to stifle him. He needs to trust his hands and his ability to scramble back to his feet.
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They should do Jones vs Aspinall. That should be the ONLY thing they do at HW with Tom.
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He does, ofc he deserves it. He defended it 3 times in LHW. He didn't defend it once and went straight to HW, he defended it 3x and lost in a very close fight in the 4th defense. He made the LHW division alive, which was dead. He can do the same at HW.
And wrong, he totally can beat Tom. Everyone was saying Alex was crazy for fighting Jiri Prochazka, with the "he got KO'd by Adesanya, challenging Jan Blacowicz and Jiri Prochazka is obviously madness..." ...
Look at the comments back then. Then, what happened? He defeated Jan Blackowski in a close competitive match, but he was, in fact, slightly better. Was the first one in UFC to KO Jiri, who had had only 2 losses in 32 fights in his career, not a single one in UFC... both losses earlier in his career, against opponents he destroyed in the rematch. In the rematch, Alex not only beat Jiri, but he destroyed him in a way any controversy of early stoppage became either "later stoppage" or "Jiri was a very bad fighter, he has 0 defense, he is dumb..." ... And he defeated Khalil Rountree with a broken rib, another younger fighter who was on a 5 wins streak and had what was considered by some fighters, such as Mighty Mouse and Usman, the best Muay Thai of the entire UFC and MMA (he improved a lot after training in Thailand). So much so, that after the win, Demetrious Johnson said he thinks Alex Pereira is #1 pfp, so did Usman. Usman was saying that what he saw there vs Khalil.... To him it doesn't matter if there were no takedowns attempt and wrestling, that being well rounded is good but not a prerequisite to being the best. He said in Alex's case, if someone is so elite at striking and has also, a good takedown defense to cover that weakness, thats enough to be the best. Usman said every fighter has a weak spot, they just need to be able to work very well on takedown defense to avoid that, instead of (which to him is a mistake) relying a lot on jiu jitsu instead of fighting to not be taken down.
He then lost to Ankalaev, a fighter who is for sure more hyped up and better overall than Dominick Reyes, but it was a close fight, no one clearly dominated... It was close to the point that if the judges chose Alex as the winner, it wouldn't be a robbery. It'd kind of feel like when JJ beat Reyes... Not a robbery, a close fight, both fights with the same level of competitiveness, and both fights which we feel one guy did slightly better. I agree it seemed Ankalaev and Reyes did slightly better, but it was also very close. Like DDP vs Sean... It really does seem Sean did slightly better, but it wasn't a robbery since it was so close, that it's hard to judge.
And that's when Alex was not in a good shape, his right wrist was 'broken' (not broken but it wasn't fully recovered from the Khalil's fight, which limited how much he could punch with his right hand)... And he reportedly (Joe Rogan and Alex's team said that...) had a virus (Renovirus?).
In retrospect, that could have impacted his performance. Yeah it doesn't matter, Ankalaev's credit, he won because he was better. But imagine having a close fight that went to decision while fighting with a virus and a broken wrist? That in of itself is a big feat. He can absolutely, with a very good camp, fighting weighing around 240ish lb, defeat Tom. The narrative Tom would take him down is fake as Ankalaev is a better wrestler than Tom. Ankalaev has a better takedown ability than Tom (Tom, again, is way more jiu jitsu, like Gane) And Ankalaev could not take Alex down when trying for 5 minutes and shooting 12 takedowns (Ankalaev even kicked Alex twice in the balls in the 5th round but Alex, I think was so focused, didn't react or even pointed at it and kept marching forwards, Ankalaev even stopped shortly to apologize but he realized Alex didn't even notice it I think lmao) ...
JJ had a close win vs Reyes, so if JJ is top of HW, then so can be Alex, for sure. For sure... If anything, it's more likely for JJ to do Tom Gane, than JJ to do Alex Gane....
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Why? After that, of course he'd like to fight Jon Jones and so would JJ like to fight him. He wouldn't retire after destroying Tom, I think he would be kinda weird doing that. He had called Tom more than once specially because Alex deep down wants to demolish Jon Jones in a way no one has ever done. But he acknowledges Tom as an obstacle there, so he is willing to take on Tom, so he can fight JJ. Tom went from wanting to fight Alex to then saying it needed to be for the undisputed belt, that he'd either fight Jon Jones firstly, not Alex. He said Alex Pereira is one of the scariest fighters to have ever appeared in the UFC, plus saying that he sees him as as much of a nightmare as fighting Jon Jones, so he wanted at least be sure he would fight JJ and not risk it vs what he said "another JJ threat level" ...
But JJ said he wants Alex badly, and Alex then said that "yeah I was interested in Tom, but he didn't want to fight me, but he is not the champion. He wants to fight Jon Jones who's the champion. I wanted to fight Tom, but he only wants to fight Jon Jones, so if JJ wants to fight me and not him, I want Jon Jones then. Jon Jones is the champion, Tom Aspinall is not". Alex later finished by saying that if he defeated JJ, then he would fight Tom...
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That's a stupid fight from Tom's perspective. I'd like to see it but no reason for him to take it...lose/lose for him. Only reason to take it would be if he got offered BIG bucks.
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Yes, I agree Alex gets a first round win. Not by submission though, I think maybe if Tom tries to take him down, he can get a ninja choke on Tom. That's the only way I see Alex defeating Tom by submission, by a ninja choke like Jean Silva vs Bryce Mitchell. Other than that, Alex wins likely by a first or second round TKO with a punch followed by ground and pound.
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JJ said recently that fighting Tom wouldn't be worth his legacy since it'd be the same as defeating Gane lulz
It would earn Aspinall a lot of money which is why he should take it if presented. It wouldn't be a difficult fight for him.
But I don't think the UFC would actually do this matchup. Pereira getting annihilated would pretty much take away any aura he has left.
There's a reason why Dana has been adamant Pereira stays at LHW.
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Well, Tom would more than likely lose to Alex or JJ either way. I think losing to JJ would be less damaging in terms of "legacy ruining" though. But yeah, I am pretty confident that both Alex and JJ would beat Tom and I don't see it being close.
I was talking to DDP recently about those matches, he asked me how I see this whole thing, I spoke the above, and he said he agrees with my takes. I said that I had seen his interview first though so that's when I was more sure of this take and he was like lol oh but that's kinda obvious, no?
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And idiots ahould keep their opinions to themselves but here we are
