Alex Pereira is teasing a potential move to heavyweight for a third UFC title, and Robelis Despaigne, a 6-foot-7 knockout artist, believes \u201cPoatan\u201d has what it takes to shine at heavyweight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Despaigne looks to go 6-0 in 2025 when he challenges Sam Alvey for the Karate Combat championship this Friday in Florida, and he sparred with the UFC light heavyweight champion days before Despaigne\u2019s match at Fusion X-Cel Performance in Orlando.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI actually wasn\u2019t going to go that day because the day before I had a very hard training session at my gym, I did a lot of sparring rounds,\u201d Despaigne told MMA Fighting, \u201cBut the coach from the Orlando gym contacted me and told me to come because Pereira\u2019s coach wanted him to train with a heavyweight they brought in, a really big guy. So I went, and I did a round with Pereira, and it was very productive for both of us. I didn\u2019t think that sparring session would go so viral, but yeah, it was very productive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Pereira started his UFC career as a middleweight and moved up a division after losing the belt to Israel Adesanya. He won, defended, and recently reclaimed the 205-pound title with a first-round knockout of Magomed Ankalaev.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHonestly, Pereira is a heavyweight,\u201d Despaigne said. \u201cTo me, he\u2019s a heavyweight who cuts down to 205 pounds. He has heavyweight power, he weighs 240-something, he\u2019s weighing basically the same as, I don\u2019t know, Ciryl Gane in competition shape. He\u2019s a heavyweight who cuts to 205, and he could even afford to make 185 if he wanted to. He can do whatever he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Pereira and Jon Jones are campaigning for a superfight at UFC\u2019s planned card at the White House in 2026, and Despaigne wouldn\u2019t be surprised if \u201cPoatan\u201d becomes the first to truly beat Jones in MMA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIf Jon Jones makes a mistake, you know he can put him to sleep,\u201d Despaigne said. \u201cNot easily \u2014 we know Jon Jones\u2019 quality. It\u2019s going to be a very anticipated fight, a big box-office fight because both of them have a big fan base and very strong numbers. It\u2019ll be a very good fight. That\u2019s what I think. Each has their strengths, Pereira has his striking, and Jon Jones, you know, I imagine will try to take advantage of his wrestling. Let\u2019s see who wins.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Despaigne and Alvey, who meet Friday night for the Karate Combat title, are UFC veterans who have found better success inside the KC pit. Alvey recently claimed the heavyweight belt with a massive knockout of veteran striker Tyrone Spong, and that\u2019s something Despaigne didn\u2019t see coming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe all thought he could lose his last title defense but no, he knocked him out easily,\u201d Despaigne said. \u201cIt looked pretty easy. I know it wasn\u2019t actually easy because his opponent was very experienced, but he still capitalized, surprised him, and beat him relatively easily. It didn\u2019t surprise me that he won, what surprised me was the way he won. I thought it would be a fight that would stretch at least into the third or fourth round, but it didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Cuban heavyweight is an Olympic bronze medalist in Taekwondo and earned a shot at the gold with three wins in one night back in July, defeating Saulo Cavalari, Tim Johnson, and Zac Pauga.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not champion of the division by accident,\u201d Despaigne said of Alvey. \u201cHe\u2019s held the belt for a long time. He\u2019s an athlete, and as everyone knows, a former UFC fighter. He knows what it is to fight, he knows what it is to compete for a title, and I think it\u2019s going to be a very tough fight. He\u2019s very strong, and I know he\u2019s going to try everything possible to win. It\u2019s going to be a good fight. \u2026 What matters is winning, right? The way you win doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019m going to go out there and do my job, same as always. Wait for him to make a mistake and do everything we\u2019ve trained for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Alex Pereira is teasing a potential move to heavyweight for a third UFC title, and Robelis Despaigne, a 6-foot-7 knockout artist, believes \u201cPoatan\u201d has what it takes to shine at heavyweight. Despaigne looks to go 6-0 in 2025 when he challenges Sam Alvey for the Karate Combat championship this Friday in Florida, and he sparred … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Robelis-Despaigne-Alex-Pereira-can-put-Jon-Jones-to-sleep.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12440,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12438\/revisions\/12440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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