Following the main event of UFC 305, Alex Pereira kickstarted talks of a champion vs champion clash with a post on social media.
Dricus Du Plessis was able to defend his middleweight title this past weekend by submitting Israel Adesanya in the fourth round.
Though he would appear to be facing Sean Strickland in a rematch next and Pereira is booked to defend his light heavyweight crown at UFC 307, “Poatan” teased that he could move back down to 185-pounds to try and reclaim the middleweight strap.
Du Plessis has been underrated for a lot of his UFC career but being able to add Pereira to his record but would be a massive moment for “Stillknocks”.
Eric Nicksick Says Alex Pereira’s Counter-Striking Would Be A Big Problem For Dricus Du Plessis
Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick gave his thoughts on how that potential fight could play out during a recent interview with Submission Radio.
Nicksick has spent a long time breaking down Du Plessis’ unorthodox movement, timing and technique due to him being Strickland’s head coach.
He believes that unlike Adesanya and Strickland, Pereira presents a huge problem to the middleweight champion because of his accuracy and power.
Many have highlighted in the past how Du Plessis does leave himself open to taking damage even if his aggressive style is incredibly effective.
This is where Nicksick believes that you can’t afford to leave any gaps for “Poatan” to capitalize on, using Pereira’s fights against the incredibly dangerous and unpredictable Jiří Procházka to illustrate his point.
“So comparison wise, think about what Alex Pereira would do to a guy like Jiří Procházka and Jiří’s very similar to Dricus in the erratic behaviour of the way he throws his punches. I think Jiří is more of a feel fighter where he’s not putting predisposed combinations in his head off of these types of reads, he’s just kind of throwing. Whereas Dricus is throwing these things but he’s also leaving his hands behind in certain positions right, like if he’s hitting that switch cross or switch overhand, it’s like one hand’s in the pocket, the other hand’s in the pocket when he’s throwing that looping overhand.
“That’s where I think Alex Pereira is elite. I think he sees the holes in the defense so Dricus kind of hits those a couple times and Alex catches that timing, that’s where his counter striking is so great. I think that’s where Dricus will have problems. I don’t think you can have that same type of approach as many times as he did against Izzy as he could against Alex Pereira. It’s like that using the same pickup line at the bar with the same girl over and over and over and finally she’s like, ‘Fine, here, f*** it, here’s my number’. But after a while, you’re like dude, this is not going to work but then all of a sudden it works.”
