Ben Askren doesn’t see Alex Pereira lasting too long if he fought Jon Jones.
UFC heavyweight Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) brought the idea of that matchup to life when he claimed that a fight with light heavyweight champion Pereira would be the biggest fight in MMA history.
Pereira (10-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who teased a move to heavyweight before, said he was honored by the mention, but Askren thinks it would be a bad idea for “Poatan.”
“If Alex could beat Tom Aspinall, he would have to stop some takedowns, right?” Askren said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Daniel Cormier. “People want to see him have the ability to stop takedowns because if you can’t stop takedowns from Jon Jones, he’s going to take you down and submit you. We saw Pereira be taken down by Izzy Adesanya, and he was kept down for actually a significant portion of time.
“It is kind of wild that we have this guy Pereira who is making his mark as possibly one of the best ever if he keeps winning, yet we still have questions about his wrestling. We don’t know because Jamahal Hill didn’t try a takedown. (Jiri) Prochazka didn’t try a takedown. (Jan) Blachowicz actually did take him down and keep him down for a round. (Sean) Strickland didn’t try a takedown. Adesanya didn’t try.”
Askren sees a fight between Jones and Pereira heavily resembling “Bones'” past fight with Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, where he needed less than a round to take him down and choke him out.
“If he fights Jon Jones, I think there’s a chance it’s over in like, two and a half minutes,” Askren said. “Look what Jon did to Ciryl Gane. Jon is a large man. He’s a high-level wrestler. He’s got great grappling skills. Yeah, I think there’s a possibility of that, for sure.”
