Tallison Teixeira is the tallest heavyweight under contract with the UFC today, standing at 6’7”, and became one of the main sparring partners of Alex Pereira as “Poatan” prepares to make his heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane at UFC White House on June 14.
For “Xicao”, the Brazilian star is days away from making history and winning the interim belt in Washington, DC.
Teixeira worked with Pereira and his coaches in Danbury, Conn., especially former light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira, as he prepared for his own fight at UFC Macau. While Teixeira unfortunately suffered a loss to Sergei Pavlovich in China, he did gain valuable experience facing off with Pereira’s powerful punches in the gym.
“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.”
Pereira scored 85% of his MMA wins by knockout, stopping champions like Israel Adesanya, Magomed Ankalaev, Jiri Prochazka, Sean Strickland and Jamahal Hill. Meanwhile, Gane stopped his opponents in nearly 70% of his MMA victories with a mix of knockouts and submissions.
“I don’t believe this fight goes to a decision,” Teixeira 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.”
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