{"id":37467,"date":"2026-03-24T00:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Junior-dos-Santos-Alex-Pereira-has-ideal-matchup-for-heavyweight-debut-200565"},"modified":"2026-03-24T00:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:42:12","slug":"junior-dos-santos-alex-pereira-has-ideal-matchup-for-heavyweight-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/junior-dos-santos-alex-pereira-has-ideal-matchup-for-heavyweight-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior dos Santos: Alex Pereira has ideal matchup for heavyweight debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nJunior dos Santos expects Alex Pereira to have great success in
\nhis heavyweight debut. | Getty\/UFC<\/b><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Former heavyweight champion Junior dos
\nSantos<\/a> had his final Octagon appearance against Ciryl Gane<\/a>
\nat UFC 256 in December 2020.<\/p>\n

With fellow Brazilian Alex
\nPereira<\/a> scheduled to face Gane in the co-main event of
\nUFC White House<\/a> on June 14, dos Santos offered some insight as
\nto what fans can expect in the interim heavyweight title bout.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I would advise \u2018Poatan\u2019 to the take care with the
\nillegal blows,\u201d joked dos Santos, who complained<\/a> about Gane an illegal elbow to the
\nback of his head following their bout.<\/p>\n

As for the fight itself, \u201cCigano\u201d believes the Pereira will have
\nadvantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere couldn’t have been a better fight for \u2018Poatan\u00b4s\u2019 debut at
\nheavyweight,\u201d he said. \u201cCiryl Gane<\/a>
\nwill be a great challenge, as he is very fast and skilled for a
\nheavyweight. But I think \u2018Poatan\u2019s’ style will confuse him.
\n\u2018Poatan\u2019 goes on the offensive mode all the time and is always
\ncutting angles, circling and gradually breaking down his opponents.
\nGane doesn’t have the heavyweight punch, and \u2018Poatan\u2019 does. I
\nbelieve Alex will win and make history by being the first athlete
\nto be champion in three different divisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netflix Negotiations<\/h2>\n

Dos Santos, who is currently the Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA
\nheavyweight champion, confirmed that he was in talks for a fight
\nagainst Jailton
\nAlmeida<\/a> on the Most Valuable Promotions \u201cRousey vs. Carano\u201d
\ncard that will air on Netflix.<\/p>\n

“I think it would be a great fight, but unfortunately he had signed
\nwith a Russian promotion,\u201d dos Santos said.<\/p>\n

However, \u201cCigano\u201d is still in negotiations to compete on the May 16
\ncard against a different opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I can say is that the names we are discussing are from the
\nnew generation,\u201d he said. \u201cBut actually I dont choose opponents. If
\nI could ,I would choose the champion. And I’m very excited about
\nthis MVP. I think they’re necessary for the world of combat sports.
\nThey have no barriers. They move through boxing, MMA, wrestling.
\nAnd that’s what the fans like. This next event in LA will be in MMA
\nrules, but I’ve never hidden my desire to do boxing matches. So I’m
\nvery excited to participate in this new promotion.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junior dos Santos expects Alex Pereira to have great success in his heavyweight debut. | Getty\/UFC Former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos had his final Octagon appearance against Ciryl Gane at UFC 256 in December 2020. With fellow Brazilian Alex Pereira scheduled to face Gane in the co-main event of UFC White House on June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}