Kayla Harrison doubles down on Alex Pereira’s judo skills: “It’s crazy how fast he picks stuff up”
Kayla Harrison is impressed by how quickly UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Alex Pereira, has picked up on judo.
Pereira has quickly risen to the top of both the middleweight and 205-pound divisions thanks to his devastating striking. Of course, one has to be well-rounded enough to thrive at the highest level in MMA, but Pereira demonstrated solid grappling defense at high altitude against Jan Blachowicz last year.
More recently, Harrison was sharing her Judo knowledge with “Poatan,” and the Olympic gold medalist is impressed.
Kayla Harrison Praises Alex Pereira for Judo Skills
Despite not having a background in grappling, Alex Pereira has left a positive impression on Kayla Harrison due to his ability to learn judo as quickly as he has. Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Harrison revealed how Pereira has already made himself look like a judoka.
“A yellow belt is a joke, obviously,” Harrison said. “You don’t normally give adults yellow belts, so that was part of it. … And to be fair to him, he was showing me the videos of him training and he was kicking [ass]. I wish that he would release this one, oh my God — he did the move I taught him and then he did the move you do if the move doesn’t work. I was like, ‘Dude, you look like a judoka!’ It’s crazy how fast he picks stuff up. He looked like a legit judo [player]. He foot-swept the shit out of this kid. Like slipping on a banana peel.
“So I gave him a yellow belt as a joke.”
Pereira is scheduled to put his UFC gold at stake against Khalil Rountree at UFC 307. The bout is expected to be a standup war for as long as it lasts, but perhaps “Poatan” will see this as an opportunity to test those judo skills.
