Alex Pereira, who held championship titles at both middleweight and light heavyweight, is moving up to heavyweight to fight No. 1-ranked Ciryl Gane for the interim 265-pound strap. The winner is expected to unify the titles against injured champion Tom Aspinall at some point later this year.
Naturally, the recovering Brit has a vested interest in the UFC White House co-main event.
“Prediction could go either way for me,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “I wouldn’t be surprised either way, and
there will be people watching saying, ‘Oh, he’s sitting on the fence, blah blah blah.’ If I was leaning one way, it would be Ciryl Gane on points — if I was leaning a particular way. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex knocks him out though, either, but I would definitely lean more towards Gane on points.”
Gane on points does not sound like an exciting fight … and former UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem paints an equally uninteresting scenario.
“I believe Gane is somewhat of an intelligent fighter,” Overeem told Bloody Elbow. “I believe he is going to try to take him down. He’s gonna take him down, because how good can you really be if you are not really wrestling? How are your get-ups? How are your stand-ups? Obviously, he’s difficult to submit, otherwise, it would have happened already. He’s lacking wrestling, that’s one thing for sure. If you can’t wrestle, it’s a factor. I’ve not seen his wrestling, so it’s like, I’m sure he’s wrestling a little bit, but he can’t be that good.”
I guess he missed this high-level display of wrestling.
Pereira (13-3) is known for his highlight-reel knockouts and Gane (13-2, 1 NC) is known for his toilet-seat fingernails. What happens when those two opposing forces collide inside the Octagon on June 14 on Paramount+ remains to be seen, I just hope we get a definitive finish and not a boring point fight or wrestle-heavy mug fest.
For much more on this weekend’s UFC White House event click here.
