Alex Pereira recently discussed Francis Ngannou’s likely transition to boxing.
UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira is getting ready to make his first title defence. Later this year, he will face Israel Adesanya. On April 8, that event will be broadcast live from Miami, Florida.
Pereira has some opinions on the former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou’s prospective boxing debut. Pereira thinks Ngannou may be in over his head with the kind of opponent he is hoping to face in his boxing debut.
Pereira arrived from the world of kickboxing, where he dominated for a long time. He is all too aware of how hard it is to switch sports later in one’s career. In order to transition to MMA, Pereira had to master the ground game. However, he was successful and is now a champion.
Ngannou is currently working hard to schedule bouts with some of the world’s finest boxers. However, it may not be that easy. Pereira recently gave an interview and discussed his opinions on Ngannou’s aspirations.
Pereira said,
“It depends if he’s fighting the elite. [Boxing against] Tyson is hard. It’s suicide. There are other guys for him to start. [He can go] one step at a time. If he really wants to fight those guys, then he’s just thinking about the money. I don’t know if that’s the case. But to say ‘I’m going there because I want to become champion,’ that’s hard.”
Pereira believes that Ngannou is banking on his UFC knockout power to win his match in boxing. He believes that Ngannou may have ignored further factors, such as the cardio required for a longer boxing match.
“[Boxing] someone who can defend from his punches, [Ngannou] would get tired. I’ll give you a dumb example: If you ask someone who’s never trained in his life to go against someone experienced and tell him to hit as hard as he can to knock him out, he’ll gas out in three minutes, and then one weak punch will knock him out since he has no defense anymore and can barely stand still. To me, knowing how to defend yourself is the most important thing.”