Daniel Cormier continues to express concern toward Alex Pereira’s training camp for UFC 313.
Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) defends his light heavyweight championship against Magomed Ankalaev (20-1-1 MMA, 11-1-1 UFC) in the March 8 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+).
Pereira recently spent some time in Australia to corner Sean Strickland for his middleweight title shot against champion Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312. Cormier thinks “Poatan” is distracted and not focused on his tough task.
“This dude (Pereira) was seen in Australia last week still, and he was shaking the hand of Drake as Drake went on stage for his concert,” Cormier said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Sonnen. “One, Drake constantly loses millions of dollars betting on people, so you kind of don’t want Drake to bet on you because he doesn’t have the greatest track record for winning. But what is Pereira still doing in Australia? He fights in two weeks! Ankalaev’s already here, he’s in Vegas, I ran into him at the UFC PI last week. He is honestly so locked in, ready to win this fight against Alex Pereira.
“I got back from Australia, and all last week I’m up at 3 o’clock in the morning. I don’t care that Pereira’s got weeks to get ready, he’s going to be ready, he’s going to be prepared, but even those two to three extra days when he’s adjusting his clock to get back on schedule in Connecticut, then once he’s done in Connecticut to fly to Vegas the week of the fight, get adjusted to two more hours, he’s going to have to deal with all that travel and all that difference in time. And where’s Glover (Teixeira)? Is Glover just in Australia with him? Is it just him and Plinio (Cruz)?”
Although Ankalaev vowed not to wrestle Pereira, Cormier warns “Poatan” that grappling needs to have been his main focus during preparation.
“Glover’s the guy honestly that should be doing the most work with Alex right now because of the wrestling,” Cormier said. “Plinio is a great grappler. Plinio needs to be overseeing Glover just shooting on Pereira because I don’t care what Ankalaev says, he has to be smarter than to go out there and try to just stand with Pereira for 25 minutes. He has to know that he’s got to secure takedowns. … Pereira better get home. He needs to get home and make sure he’s locked in because he does have the hardest fight of his title reign to this point.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 313.
