Chael Sonnen suggests Alex Pereira will become Fighter of the Year with victory over Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295

Chael Sonnen has explained why he believes Alex Pereira could become Fighter of the Year with a victory at UFC 295.

This Saturday night, Alex Pereira returns to action in a blockbuster encounter with Jiri Prochazka. The two will fight for the UFC light heavyweight championship, with Pereira attempting to become the latest two-division UFC champion.

This time last year, ‘Poatan’ finished Israel Adesanya via TKO to claim the UFC middleweight title. However, in April of this year, ‘Stylebender’ got his revenge by knocking the Brazilian out cold to reclaim the strap.

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Then, a few months later, Pereira moved up in weight to 205 pounds and defeated Jan Blachowicz via split decision. In the mind of Chael Sonnen, a win over Prochazka would vault him into the FOTY conversation.

Sonnen backs Pereira

“The current leader for Fighter of the Year is very clear: It’s Islam Makhachev,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “No other fighter this year has taken out somebody to that degree. Islam only got two fights this year, but it was the same guy, Volkanovski, the undefeated, the unbeaten, the reigning world champion.

“While Islam slid past one, he then took on Volkanovski, who had another title defense and was the reigning, sitting world champion, and he didn’t get out of the first three minutes. The clear leader right now is Islam.”

“However, if Alex Pereira wins, he will within this calendar year – which is the specific dates of the question – have been the 185-pound champion and the 205-pound champion in the same calendar year, and therefore makes him Fighter of the Year per my vote,” Sonnen added.

Quotes via MMA Junkie

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