I'm not saying Pereira will have better anti-wrestling than someone like Izzy. But Darren Till sucks on the ground, and Rob couldn't get or hold him down.

I'm not talking about Poatan being able to deal with takedowns against a Romero or Weidman or even Brunson. I'm just talking about dealing with Whittaker.

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Whittaker could hold Pereira down.

Based on what? Who has he ever held down? Gastelum for 2 minutes in a 5 round fight? Where he already was lighting him up?

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Not to mention all the wrestling Pereira will have to do from basically the start will drain his gas tank.

I think Whittaker will spend more energy offensively wrestling than Pereira will spend defensively wrestling.

In Pereira's UFC debut he was controlled the entire 1st round, but didn't expend much energy and the other guy was completely drained after 5 minutes. Then Poatan comes out and KOs him 30 seconds into round 2.

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I don't actually think Alex is significantly stronger than Whittaker.

I think you are mistaken. Alex stronger but also is just significantly bigger as well. He's huge for MW, he really should be at LHW.