Alex Pereira Gains 34lbs in Less Than 3 Days

Alex Pereira Gains 34lbs in Less Than 3 Days

Abdullah Ouazri|
July 05, 2022|
0

Alex Pereira revealed on Monday, less than two days after his fight at UFC 276, that he now weighs 219lbs.

Pereira is a former kickboxer and now competes in the UFC Middleweight division at 185lbs. He is currently ranked #6 and is coming off of a first-round KO win over Sean Strickland this past Saturday at UFC 276. The indigenous Brazilian weighed in at 184.5lbs on Friday, and in 3 days, has gained 34.5lbs.

Pereira cuts approximately 16% of his entire body weight to drop down to 185. Many fighters often talk about the drawbacks of cutting weight and preach against it. Among them are names like Paul Felder and Colby Covington. The two have openly stated that they would rather fight closer to their natural weight and give up a size advantage than cut weight.

The well-known drawbacks to cutting weight, however, include fatigue, loss of strength, and becoming more prone to injury as well as reduced recoverability. Perhaps the most notorious of them all is the loss of durability during a fight. Fighters such as Michael Bisping, on his YouTube channel, have spoken candidly about losing the ability to take a punch when you cut extreme amounts of weight.

We've seen examples of this in fights like Cejudo vs. Dillashaw, where Dillashaw cut an extreme amount of weight to make the Flyweight limit, only to be TKO'd in 1 round.

The culmination of these is the reason why some fighters prefer to fight at their natural weight, rather than risk a decrease in performance and potentially lose a fight.

Alex Pereira seems to do just fine though, going 3-0 so far in his UFC career with a title shot seemingly in sight.

OverUnder
All of your weekly MMA updates in one place.
Keeping up to date with combat sports news can take up a lot of time, so we’re simplifying the process by bringing the most important stories directly to you. We read the internet all week and then summarize what you need to know in 3-4 minutes.
Enter your email to sign up for the OverUnder newsletter. The first email newsletter in MMA.
By subscribing, you will receive a weekly MMA newsletter from Verdict MMA. You can unsubscribe at any time.