Robert Whittaker has warned Alex Pereira not to fight fellow UFC champion Drix du Plessis at middleweight.
Light heavyweight champion Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) has expressed interest in moving down to 185 pounds to challenge middleweight champion du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who is fresh off a fourth-round submission win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 305. Pereira last fought at middleweight when he was knocked out by Adesanya at UFC 287. He has dominated the light heavyweight division since then, but Whittaker believes moving down to 185 pounds would put him at a disadvantage.
“I don’t think it’s a good fight for him, to be honest with you,” Whittaker told Submission Radio. “Yeah, I don’t think it’s a good fight for him, but when you move up to light heavyweight, it’s hard to go down again.”
“And you don’t move up the rankings because of one game. He’s been at the top for a long time. He’s been at the top for a while now. So it’s going to take a lot of work for him to move down, and Dricus is very strong there.”
Whittaker also believes Pereira would not be able to handle du Plessis’ power at middleweight.
“Alex gets hit, and Dricus likes to get hit,” Whittaker said, “so it’s hard to find someone who’s strong enough to stop Dricus coming at you, and he hits hard. You saw that with Adesanya, where Adesanya has a really strong chin, and Dricus was still able to hurt him so badly.”
Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will look to make the third defense of his light heavyweight title when he faces Khalil Rountree (13-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) in the main event of UFC 307 on October 5 in Salt Lake City.
For more on the card, check out MMA Junkie’s UFC 307 event hub.
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