Michael Bisping breaks down Ciryl Gane vs Alex Pereira
· Yahoo Sports
History could be made in the UFC Freedom 250 co-main event on Sunday. Former two-division titleholder Alex Pereira has the opportunity to become the first fighter in the promotion's history to win championships in three different weight classes.
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Pereira takes on former interim champion ands title challenger Ciryl Gane with the interim belt on the line. It will be Pereira's debut in the heavyweight division. He's head titles at middleweight and light heavyweight, but former middleweight titleholder Michael Bisping doesn't think "Poatan" will defeat the Frenchman.
“There's been a lot of footage recently of Alex Pereira sparring heavyweights like Tallison Teixeira. You can't read too much into sparring footage, but if you look at that, Teixeira was clipping him quite a lot. Granted, he is 6 '9, he is gigantic for the division, but Ciryl Gane is very light on his feet. He's used to fighting at heavyweight. He's used to moving and operating at weighing 260 pounds," Bisping told Casino.org.
“I said I would never doubt him (Alex Pereira) again after what he did to Magomed Ankalaev, knocking him out in like 60 seconds or something, and now here I am potentially doubting him again because he's put weight on. He was at 185, he fought at 205, now he's going up to 265 pounds. Can he do it? Of course he can. He has knockout power, but Ciryl Gane is used to taking shots off heavyweights. He's very light on his feet. He's very elusive. He's very good at kickboxing. He's used to taking heavyweight shots and he's used to knocking out heavyweights. So I'm leaning towards Ciryl Gane.”
While Bisping is leaning towards Gane, he believes Pereira will become the 'undeniable' GOAT if he wins on Sunday.
“Matchups come into it, but you can't deny the fact that he would be the only three-weight division champion. It's never been done before. So, you can slice it any way you want. You can say, 'who was the only person that became a champion in three weight divisions?' and it's Alex Pereira. So he’d be the greatest of all time then. It's as simple as that. On accolades alone, it becomes undeniable," Bisping said.