Tom has been trying, for years, to get the Jon Jones fight to happen, and by all sources we have, it is Jon who has said no. Many, many times. Wasting years of Toms career.
With the people Tom has fought, you believe Tom is afraid of fighting Alex. Who got K.O'ed by Adersanya.
*shrug* Believe what you want. I do feel your opinion is based on what you "feel", instead of what we know. But yeah, to each his own.
Pereira has been clear he wants that fight. Meanwhile, when Tom got asked about it recently on ESPN, instead of jumping into the opportunity to show his skills vs the biggest superstar in the sport, and someone more valuable name wise than anyone other than JJ that he could face, his answer was "I think, I'm just speaking if I were Alex, but I think... Pereira should rematch Ankalaev"
That's not the answer you give if you're really into facing Pereira (which he was last year many times post UFC 300 until Pereira beat Rountree, to which he was more like ehhh). That's an answer redirecting Alex Pereira to someone else for Pereira to keep busy all while that's the biggest to fight he could have(he said Pereira is way tougher than Gane... He said Gane was an 8 and Pereira, a 9.5)...
Plus, leaning always on the "he got KO'd by Adesanya" like it's some permanent disqualifier is getting kinda old... Since then, Alex has taken out 4 former champions at LHW, defended the belt 3x, proving his power carried up even better at LHW... A middleweight KO while cutting massive weight meaning Tom has nothing to worry about is ignoring the reality of what Pereira has done since. He fought someone ( Ankalaev) who's naturally ~240lbs, so a big LHW and who's on a way more impressive record than Tom, all while sick and losing by a very close 3-2 that had the odds post fight saying "it was a 52/48 fight for Ankalaev" — Ank -125 vs +100 Pereira post fight with the DraftKings irl odds.
MMA doesn't work like that. If even cutting weight Pereira could match the skills of MWs, then fighting at his natural size, which he has shown recently as 245 lbs all while being lean and having very low fat mass (strong, fit physique that is as lean as Miocic's physique, while Alex weighs 245 lbs), and considering Pereira has improved a lot since then even, he has withstood strikes from way heavier power punchers than Adesanya (showing dehydration lowers resilience which is acknowledged by many fighters) and has proven his TDD is elite vs a sambo specialist from Dagestan... It all show Pereira is a more active, a dangerous top tier LHW from modern era with HW size (when not cutting weight), who is chasing out a fight with Tom for a while. Tom's answer, unlike before, makes it sound like he'd rather see Alex Pereira busy elsewhere. Heck, Tom said Pereira would be tougher than any HW after Pereira beat Jiri at 303, saying "I'm focused on Curtis Blaydes now, but Alex Pereira would be one of the most dangerous fights I'd ever have" — he said that literally, on the TMZ Fight Lab channel when analysing Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka 2...
I believe Alex Pereira would beat Tom like he did vs Jiri. The myth of "HWs are on another level " is imo more just a bias size people have. Topuria proved recently that moving up when having the size of a LW is easier than fighting while cutting weight at FW. Volk proved the same by giving Makhachev his hardest fight ever since Islam's loss. JJ proved that by making little work of Gane in his first HW fight, after 3 years without fighting. When you her, JJ had had tough fights at the last LHW era before he was in before this one, vs Santos, Reyes.
Bigger # better. Proven more often than not.
