Pereira sparring partner warns Gane: 'He hurts you wherever he lands'

Tallison Teixeira has felt Alex Pereira’s punches up close — and he is convinced Ciryl Gane will feel them too when the two heavyweights meet at UFC White House in Washington, DC on June 14.

The 6‘7” Brazilian heavyweight, the tallest fighter currently under UFC contract, became one of Pereira’s primary sparring partners as “Poatan” prepared for his heavyweight debut. Teixeira trained alongside Pereira and his coaching staff in Danbury, Connecticut — a camp overseen in part by former light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira — while readying himself for his own bout against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC Macau, a fight he ultimately lost.

Despite that setback, Teixeira came away from the experience with a clear-eyed view of just how dangerous Pereira is at the heavier weight class.

“I’m sure I’ve never trained with another heavyweight who has hands as heavy as his,” Teixeira told MMA Fighting. “He really hurts you wherever he lands. Even though I know none of the sparring sessions we had were for real, at 100 percent, wherever he puts his hands he starts breaking you down. He’s the kind of guy who suffocates you round after round. So the longer the fight goes, the harder it becomes. Man, I really think he’s coming to become the UFC’s first-ever triple champion.”

The numbers support the hype. Pereira has finished 85 percent of his MMA victories by knockout, stopping the likes of Israel Adesanya, Magomed Ankalaev, Jiri Prochazka, Sean Strickland and Jamahal Hill on his way to holding both the middleweight and light heavyweight titles. Gane, for his part, has stopped opponents in nearly 70 percent of his wins through a combination of knockouts and submissions, making him one of the more dangerous finishers in the heavyweight division.

Teixeira does not expect the fight to go the distance.

“I don’t believe this fight goes to a decision,” he said. “I believe Alex has way more tools to get a knockout. Obviously, Gane is very good, a guy I respect a lot, one of the best strikers in the division — if not the best striker in the division — but Alex is something different. He’s on another level. Only the people who are actually in there with him can truly feel the pressure and understand what it’s like. He’s a different kind of fighter. I believe he’s going there to knock Gane out, and I think he’ll get it done.”

Pereira’s heavyweight debut carries the interim title on the line, with a win in Washington set to position him as the undisputed champion across three weight classes — a feat no UFC fighter has ever achieved.