Media Alex Pereira trains with former foe Yousri Belgaroui to prepare for Israel Adesanya

[BoxerMaurits]

Yousri Belgaroui is atleast 6’5”.
A multiple-time GLORY Kickboxing title-challenger turned MMA-fighter who fought Israel Adesanya (2 times) aswell as Alex Pereira (3 times).
He definitely knows a thing or two about both guys, and despite Yousri’s former intense rivalry with Pereira, he’s now helping his former foe prepare to defend his UFC world championship (just like he helped him prepare to win the title last November).



Yousri has a tall stature and long rangy kickboxing game, just like Adesanya.
In the training video below you see Yousri trying to imitate Israel’s evasive movement and feint attacks on Pereira. The past few weeks there’ve been a lot more sparring sessions on their Instagram-stories and I was truly impressed by the way Yousri was able to imitate Izzy




Like I said, Alex Pereira and Yousri Belgaroui shared the ring 3 times before in a heated rivalry, and now they’re close training parters and great friends, which is very nice to see.
Friendship aside, here’s the compilation video of their fights in GLORY, the vid shows highlights of all 3 fights (including the famous knockout):


(full fights are on GLORY’s YT aswell)


Here’s Israel Adesanya vs Yousri Belgaroui 2:




Yousri himself is doing a good job in MMA too.
His last two finishes:





Yousri went 5-2 since transitioning to MMA in 2021.
His two decision-losses came against hometown guys in UAE Warriors. His first loss over a year ago being a Izzy - Romero kinda fight against a wrestler-boxer, where Yousri was like Izzy landing from the outside but not doing much more and the wrestler-boxer guy being Romero doing absolutely nothing but walking forward swinging/missing haymakers.
Not a great performance at all (maybe because of inexperience), but I definitely thought Yousri won due to landing more, opposed to losing a split decision. Still, it was a hard fight to score.
His second loss a few months later was an absolute robbery against a local guy from Dubai, UAE though.
So yeah, basically Belgaroui could’ve been 7-0 instead of 5-2, but thankfully this sport isn’t like modern boxing where you get defined by a single loss


Anyway, keep an eye open during the Embedded Series this week. I’m sure Yousri Belgaroui will be shown on there, aswell as in Pereira’s corner on saturday. Hopefully their training pays off

War Poatan

 

[BoxerMaurits]

I met Yousri at Levels Fight League (LFL) in Amsterdam, where he commentated the event together with my good old friend Robin Black



Yousri told me he’ll probably be fighting for LFA next, and if he does well, he has a good chance of entering the UFC. Yousri said that Pereira’s manager Jorge Guimarães fixed this for him. The training with Glover Teixeira and Alex Pereira definitely helped him up his game. Yousri also said he’s very excited to help Pereira prepare for Adesanya and train with all the great fighters at Teixeira MMA.
In the interview below you see me in a conversation with Yousri (in the background), where we’re talking about all this (timestamped):



I also spoke to the interviewer, Dennis Kornman, who’s the Dutch guru when it comes to combat sports.
He’s the executive producer of UFC on Eurosport NL and host of Dutch MMA podcasts “Vechtersbazen” and “De Gouden Kooi” (together with former UFC- and PRIDE-fighter Gilbert Yvel and Big Marcel Dorff).
He already knew me (but just by name), due to interaction via the podcast



And here Dennis talks to Gilbert Yvel and Big Marcel Dorff about meeting me at LFL 6 on his podcast the day after, lol (timestamped):



Some context and translation:

I send in a question for the podcast and asked them (Dennis, Gilbert and Marcel) something about the LFL event in the Q/A part of the podcast, and when my question popped up Dennis Kornman went like:

“Yeah shoutout to Maurits! Was really nice to meet you at LFL!” He then explained that I send in questions weekly and participate in their betting game and that he ran into me at LFL. He said he liked meeting me in person, while before he only knew me digitally. Following with “I really liked that!”.
Gilbert Yvel then asked: "What did he look like?"
When Dennis replied with: “Big, he’s a big guy, man. I really had to like (looks up in the air), yeah a big dude.”

And then he continues reading my question

 

[Siauliai]

Nice man you're really top dog here on sherdog. And fuck yeah Israel vs Poatan 4 should be fire

 

[Thesnake101]

Technically speaking Pereira already won the quadrilogy since, even with an Izzy win, it'd still be 3-1 in Alex's favor.

 

[Stagliano]

Is it me or Belgaroui is balding? Wouldn't have recognized him if you didn't mention his name.

I remember his fight against Adesanya. Izzy's striking was more impressive during his kickboxing days... But the takedown threat won't allow you some things that you used to do before.

 

[swimba]

@BoxerMaurits You handsome little fella

 

[SpiderCrawl]

Technically speaking Pereira already won the quadrilogy since, even with an Izzy win, it'd still be 3-1 in Alex's favor.

Always felt to me like the guy who wins last is the true winner...

 

[Shilajit]

I met Yousri at Levels Fight League (LFL) in Amsterdam, where he commentated the event together with my good old friend Robin Black

View attachment 977034

Yousri told me he’ll probably be fighting for LFA next, and if he does well, he has a good chance of entering the UFC. Yousri said that Pereira’s manager Jorge Guimarães fixed this for him. The training with Glover Teixeira and Alex Pereira definitely helped him up his game. Yousri also said he’s very excited to help Pereira prepare for Adesanya and train with all the great fighters at Teixeira MMA.
In the interview below you see me in a conversation with Yousri (in the background), where we’re talking about all this (timestamped):



I also spoke to the interviewer, Dennis Kornman, who’s the Dutch guru when it comes to combat sports.
He’s the executive producer of UFC on Eurosport NL and host of Dutch MMA podcasts “Vechtersbazen” and “De Gouden Kooi” (together with former UFC- and PRIDE-fighter Gilbert Yvel and Big Marcel Dorff).
He already knew me (but just by name), due to interaction via the podcast

View attachment 977035

And here Dennis talks to Gilbert Yvel and Big Marcel Dorff about meeting me at LFL 6 on his podcast the day after, lol (timestamped):



Some context and translation:

I send in a question for the podcast and asked them (Dennis, Gilbert and Marcel) something about the LFL event in the Q/A part of the podcast, and when my question popped up Dennis Kornman went like:

“Yeah shoutout to Maurits! Was really nice to meet you at LFL!” He then explained that I send in questions weekly and participate in their betting game and that he ran into me at LFL. He said he liked meeting me in person, while before he only knew me digitally. Following with “I really liked that!”.
Gilbert Yvel then asked: "What did he look like?"
When Dennis replied with: “Big, he’s a big guy, man. I really had to like (looks up in the air), yeah a big dude.”

And then he continues reading my question

This is some A level sherdogging sir

 

[drbolony]

I met Yousri at Levels Fight League (LFL) in Amsterdam, where he commentated the event together with my good old friend Robin Black

View attachment 977034

Yousri told me he’ll probably be fighting for LFA next, and if he does well, he has a good chance of entering the UFC. Yousri said that Pereira’s manager Jorge Guimarães fixed this for him. The training with Glover Teixeira and Alex Pereira definitely helped him up his game. Yousri also said he’s very excited to help Pereira prepare for Adesanya and train with all the great fighters at Teixeira MMA.
In the interview below you see me in a conversation with Yousri (in the background), where we’re talking about all this (timestamped):



I also spoke to the interviewer, Dennis Kornman, who’s the Dutch guru when it comes to combat sports.
He’s the executive producer of UFC on Eurosport NL and host of Dutch MMA podcasts “Vechtersbazen” and “De Gouden Kooi” (together with former UFC- and PRIDE-fighter Gilbert Yvel and Big Marcel Dorff).
He already knew me (but just by name), due to interaction via the podcast

View attachment 977035

And here Dennis talks to Gilbert Yvel and Big Marcel Dorff about meeting me at LFL 6 on his podcast the day after, lol (timestamped):



Some context and translation:

I send in a question for the podcast and asked them (Dennis, Gilbert and Marcel) something about the LFL event in the Q/A part of the podcast, and when my question popped up Dennis Kornman went like:

“Yeah shoutout to Maurits! Was really nice to meet you at LFL!” He then explained that I send in questions weekly and participate in their betting game and that he ran into me at LFL. He said he liked meeting me in person, while before he only knew me digitally. Following with “I really liked that!”.
Gilbert Yvel then asked: "What did he look like?"
When Dennis replied with: “Big, he’s a big guy, man. I really had to like (looks up in the air), yeah a big dude.”

And then he continues reading my question

Got these pro fighters shook!


UberTS 2.0 bless!

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Is it me or Belgaroui is balding? Wouldn't have recognized him if you didn't mention his name.

I remember his fight against Adesanya. Izzy's striking was more impressive during his kickboxing days... But the takedown threat won't allow you some things that you used to do before.

Yeah he’s balding hahah. Fathertime is undefeated
Oh and also, here’s a nice interview with Yousri about the UFC 281 trainingcamp, working with Poatan and the rest of the team, etc.

 

[Reach4theSky]

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Loll<45>
@Buff

 

[KoChang]

Imagine English not being your first language AND trying to decipher whatever it is that Chuck is mumbling.

 

[World eater]

I always liked Yousri, good fighter. Like Izzy, he got defeated twice by Perreira in KB. Not sure how much he’ll improve Poatan’s standup game since he is perfectly capable of beating Izzy already, but it is nice to see great rivals working together. I get the feeling most of Perreira’s past opponents are on good terms with him, or at least respect him. Let’s see if Glover improved his grappling game, because I assume Izzy will at least try to push that approach this time.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Alex FTW

Looking forward to see what Belgaroui can do in MMA.

 

[StonedLemur]

Yousri Belgaroui is atleast 6’5”.
A multiple-time GLORY Kickboxing title-challenger turned MMA-fighter who fought Israel Adesanya (2 times) aswell as Alex Pereira (3 times).
He definitely knows a thing or two about both guys, and despite Yousri’s former intense rivalry with Pereira, he’s now helping his former foe prepare to defend his UFC world championship (just like he helped him prepare to win the title last November).

View attachment 977029

Yousri has a tall stature and long rangy kickboxing game, just like Adesanya.
In the training video below you see Yousri trying to imitate Israel’s evasive movement and feint attacks on Pereira. The past few weeks there’ve been a lot more sparring sessions on their Instagram-stories and I was truly impressed by the way Yousri was able to imitate Izzy




Like I said, Alex Pereira and Yousri Belgaroui shared the ring 3 times before in a heated rivalry, and now they’re close training parters and great friends, which is very nice to see.
Friendship aside, here’s the compilation video of their fights in GLORY, the vid shows highlights of all 3 fights (including the famous knockout):


(full fights are on GLORY’s YT aswell)


Here’s Israel Adesanya vs Yousri Belgaroui 2:




Yousri himself is doing a good job in MMA too.
His last two finishes:





Yousri went 5-2 since transitioning to MMA in 2021.
His two decision-losses came against hometown guys in UAE Warriors. His first loss over a year ago being a Izzy - Romero kinda fight against a wrestler-boxer, where Yousri was like Izzy landing from the outside but not doing much more and the wrestler-boxer guy being Romero doing absolutely nothing but walking forward swinging/missing haymakers.
Not a great performance at all (maybe because of inexperience), but I definitely thought Yousri won due to landing more, opposed to losing a split decision. Still, it was a hard fight to score.
His second loss a few months later was an absolute robbery against a local guy from Dubai, UAE though.
So yeah, basically Belgaroui could’ve been 7-0 instead of 5-2, but thankfully this sport isn’t like modern boxing where you get defined by a single loss


Anyway, keep an eye open during the Embedded Series this week. I’m sure Yousri Belgaroui will be shown on there, aswell as in Pereira’s corner on saturday. Hopefully their training pays off

War Poatan

Great thread as usual sir.
That dude Yousri does a pretty good job of replicating Israels feints.
I love that Alex is taking this fight serious, and learning new things.


Much love little brother.

 

[Ace70 V2]

I think Israel can definitely pull it off. There was never a fight where he wasn't competitive. Alex is probably the guy that beats him 9 out of 10 times. But if the 1 win is arguably going to be their last fight together, now would he the time for him to pull it out. Either way, both of these dudes deserve our respect.

 

[stacrafty]

Technically speaking Pereira already won the quadrilogy since, even with an Izzy win, it'd still be 3-1 in Alex's favor.

Alex seems like a competitive dude, and its seems like your'e a fan of kickboxing so you know as well as I how rare a standing 8 is in modern kickboxing. I'm sure Alex wants a cleaner win than being all but TKO'd on the feet and given a bizzare charity 8 count to recover.

Also whats with Alex sucking up to that Hans Molemkamp goofball and pushing crytpo scams in his IG posts?

Does Hans own his soul? its the first thing he tags in his posts

 

[WhiteMousse]

I think Israel can definitely pull it off. There was never a fight where he wasn't competitive. Alex is probably the guy that beats him 9 out of 10 times. But if the 1 win is arguably going to be their last fight together, now would he the time for him to pull it out. Either way, both of these dudes deserve our respect.

I agree that the more times they fight, the more likely it is that Israel wins. They're both close in skill and while I believe Alex is better, you fight this many times something crazy is bound to happen.

That's assuming Israel shows up unshaken, which I am assuming.

 

[stacrafty]

from simping up to that goofball Hans Molemkamp.

I thought a lot fighters (led by Dom Cruz) rejected their monster energy sponsorships because it required too much weird stuff with Hans. From memory Hans would make fighters pose with him for all sorts of weird internet clout chasing attempts. But here its the first thing he tags - tags it before glovers gym lol

Also of interest on there is Alex hasn't got the memo that crypto / NFT scams are not flavour of the month anymore

Maybe once he gets that PPV cut he won't need the monster $ anymore