Former UFC middleweight champion Alex “Poatan” Pereira made a huge statement in his light heavyweight debut, dispatching former LHW champ Jan Blachowicz via decision.
There’s been no shortage of analysts discounting Pereira, not least among them Anthony Smith, who called Pereira a “fairly normal dude.” “Poatan” fired back on his YouTube channel.
UFC: Alex Pereira Fires Back At “Washed Up” Anthony Smith
“I always see him talking, especially about me. He talks really bad. I don’t know what he has against me but he criticized other athletes too, saying the athlete didn’t make weight and a guy who in Glover [Teixeira’s] fight in Rio de Janeiro was a backup and the guy didn’t make weight.
It shows why he’s not that successful. Because someone who’s going to be a backup fighter, he takes it easy unlike Glover.
You can see he didn’t take it seriously. He just didn’t make weight and now today he relishes bashing other athletes because he has no clue what they go through.
A commentator who is a fighter knows how tough it is but somehow he chooses not to give them any credit or at least stay silent. He has to put his two cents in because he loves being in the spotlight.
He doesn’t show up at the fights. I mean, he likes fighting but doesn’t show up. No one talks about him so he spouts off nonsense just to get some screen time.”
Smith, although he has hung around the light heavyweight rankings for much of his career, has never managed to secure a UFC title. Alex Pereira puts much of Smith’s criticism down to jealousy.
“If there’s one guy doing well and another guy only criticizing, people aren’t stupid. They’ll see what’s going on. They’ll see that he’s just a bitter man.
The only ones who speak bad about me are Anthony Smith types. Washed-up vets who never amounted to anything, who are still fighting.
They’re in a really tight spot or the guy who is still a nobody but those who are already doing well, I don’t see them talking about me, you know? It’s the ones who are beneath me.”
Pereira also weighed in on Smith’s latest outing, a skid-stopping win over Ryan Spann at UFC Singapore. “The first round was kind of a bland round.
Not too exciting. Anthony Smith took it but without doing much. In the second round, Ryan started putting in his strong hands there and Anthony Smith felt it, almost got knocked out, went to some good positions, stayed on top. So it was clearly a round with a high risk for Anthony Smith.
The third round was also more slow-paced. Anthony Smith really tired, I was wondering if it’s the altitude or what’s up with that place.
The guy being 35 years old, performing, fighting at a high level, and didn’t do that much to get that tired. I guess he has some issue.”
