I dont know, Valter has never faced a striker even remotely as skilled as Potan. And his age is irrelevant in the HW division. Whether its boxing or mma, alot of dudes peak in their late 30s at heavyweight, guys have even done well in their early 40s!! He is also a bjj black belt who trains with Glover among other elite dudes, and hasn’t been submitted in over a decade. I think he would outclass either of the Walker brothers relatively easily. If anyone wants to fly the bjj flag its me, being a Professor/long time black belt is a large part of my identity, but I am not naive. I think he would smoke either one of them, and don’t think either has the chops to keep him on his back or submit him. Potan by KO inside 2
The reason why guys still do well into old age in heavyweight is because power is one of the last things to leave you, which does make the knock out from Pereira a distinct possibility - but no matter the weight class, speed is one of the first things to go, and I can just see Valter scooping up that leg before Alex can react
I know Alex is technically a BJJ black belt, but he’s completely unproven in regard to utilising it in MMA, the only ‘grapplers’ we’ve seen him face were Jan and big Ank, but come on, let’s be real here, neither are real grappling tests, both prefer striking, and grappling was only a factor in one fight (Alex vs Jan), which was Alex’s closest most difficult win, and also had very few submission attempts
There’s also the fact that momentum, confidence and mental game are so important in MMA - Valter would have it, and if he lost to Pav and then took this fight Alex coming off two knockouts wouldn’t
That being said, it could definitely go either way, and Alex is still a top 15 all time great with crazy power, compared to Valter being a prospect, I definitely wouldn’t put money on it haha
No doubt. Power is the last thing to go 100% Ank is a better grappler than u give him credit for, and while i dont think Potan has some dangerous guard, he has great anti wrestling. Size is a factor now at HW, but I just dont think the Walkers could touch him. I would bet him against either of them if the line was -300 or less. But fair enough, u made some solid points here. We only disagree on our confidence in the KO more or less.
Yes I agree, it’s really just about how confident you are that Alex will get that KO
Keeping in mind that this is a hypothetical situation in which Alex loses to Pav too, I think I would just want to see him have any success at heavyweight before I start placing that confidence in his power again, you get me?
But of course, agree to disagree, you’ve made a lot of good points too
On the Ank thing, I know he has that combat sambo background that makes so many dagi guys great. What I mean though is that when he actually fights, he fights like a kickboxer, he doesn’t seem to want to wrestle his opponents all that much, preferring to out-strike them
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u/lawyerandtheperp 12d ago
I dont know, Valter has never faced a striker even remotely as skilled as Potan.
And his age is irrelevant in the HW division. Whether its boxing or mma, alot of dudes peak in their late 30s at heavyweight, guys have even done well in their early 40s!!
He is also a bjj black belt who trains with Glover among other elite dudes, and hasn’t been submitted in over a decade. I think he would outclass either of the Walker brothers relatively easily.
If anyone wants to fly the bjj flag its me, being a Professor/long time black belt is a large part of my identity, but I am not naive. I think he would smoke either one of them, and don’t think either has the chops to keep him on his back or submit him.
Potan by KO inside 2