Robert Whittaker suggests Alex Pereira stay away from middleweight return
During a recent interview with Submission Radio, Whittaker weighed in on Pereira’s potential return to the middleweight division.
“I hope [not]. Honestly, I don’t think that’s a good fight for him,” Whittaker said of Pereira vs. du Plessis. “But also, when you move up to light heavyweight, moving back down is tricky. It’s not like he moved up for one fight…he’s been fighting there for a while now. So it would take a lot of effort to get back down, and Dricus [du Plessis] is so strong there. Alex [Pereira] gets hit, and Dricus likes getting hit…
“So it’s hard to see someone with the amount of power to stop Dricus from walking forward into you. And Dricus hits hard, you saw that in the fight against Adesanya, and Adesanya has a really good chin.”
Pereira will headline UFC 307 next month against Khalil Rountree Jr. Du Plessis, meanwhile, hasn’t ruled out a potential future move to light heavyweight.
Whittaker’s familiarity with du Plessis stems from a TKO loss at UFC 290. He’s won back-to-back fights since the stunning defeat to du Plessis.
