Michael Bisping: 'It's really hard to deny' Alex Pereira is UFC's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter

Michael Bisping believes UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira’s strength of schedule is what makes him the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.

Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) notched his third title defense in the span of seven months when he scored a fourth-round TKO of Khalil Rountree in Saturday’s UFC 307 main event. Pereira is currently No. 2 in the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings behind lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.

“Pereira is going through everybody,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “Three title defenses in seven months and taking the world by storm. So, if you go through the top 10, it’s really hard to deny Alex Pereira is No. 1.”

Bisping’s only asterisk on Pereira’s resume is that he’s yet to face a strong grappler during his title reign. However, he does commend “Poatan” for the fashion in which he’s been winning his fights, knocking out his past four opponents.

“He is very active. He is taking on the top competition,” Bisping said. “Yes, sure, granted, maybe Magomed Ankalaev should’ve been in there Saturday night, but he wasn’t. That’s not (Pereira’s) fault. You can’t hold that against him. But the people that he is beating, he’s doing it in sensational fashion, and he’s finishing them.

“And that’s partly what I want to see. To be pound-for-pound No. 1, you’ve got to be finishing people. You can’t be scraping by them with split decisions. You’ve got to do it in emphatic fashion, and I don’t think there’s anyone out there with the finishing ability of Alex Pereira. It is frightening what he can do.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.