I respect Pavlovich and he is dangerous and powerful, but he isn't Poatan lol - skill and experience wise, it's ridiculous to compare them. And Pavolich hurt Tom standing before he got KO'd.
I am also not picking Poatan as I think Tom is well rounded and can get him down - but I think it's a tougher fight than Aspinall's fans want to admit.
I think Poatan is an easy fight tbh, and I say that as a Poatan fan.
He's not even fought grapplers at his own weight yet. Somebody with the submission acumen of an Aspinall or a Jones is a nightmare for him. Especially when you consider how heavy he is and he can put all that weight on him. It's not like he has looked good on the ground so far in his career. He was outgrappled by Adesanya which is really embarrassing. Took him down only to get swept and held down for almost a full round. He survived on the ground against Jiri and Blachowicz who are both primarily strikers. He's fought nobody like Aspinall yet.
Not to mention, people keep talking about Poatan like he hits you once and you're fucked, which is true but only to an extent. If Silva and Jan can take his strikes for 15 minutes a big HW who's a better striker should be able to.
I'm not comparing Poatan to Pav from a stylistic standpoint, I'm just saying people said the same things about Pavlovich that they are now saying about Poatan, that he hits you one time and the fight is over, and Tom would need to be diving for ankles from the opening bell to survive. Which is not true. Aspinall murked Pav on the feet and he could very well do the same to Pereira. Poatan doesn't have the best defense in the world, and Tom is ridiculously fast and has fight ending power in everything he throws.
And nah he wasn't hurt by Pavlovich. He got hit clean but he was never rocked, his mouthpiece was dislodged but that's it, he avoided every follow up shot Pav tried to land with slick head movement, which he wouldn't have had the nause to do if he was hurt.