UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has eyed the heavyweight title for a while now. As such, Poatan recently addressed a potential move to the 265lb weight class currently ruled by UFC superstars Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall. Furthermore, Pereira isn’t worried about Magomed Ankalaev‘s callouts at light heavyweight.
Alex Pereira recently sent out a video on his YouTube channel. In that video, Pereira talked about how he has his focus on the heavyweight title regardless of who he has to fight to attain it. At the age of 37, Pereira is really in a time crunch even though he is in the prime of his career.
I’m 37, so I have to go directly to the top, directly to the belt. If it’s Jon Jones, if it’s Aspinall, whoever, to me doesn’t matter. I’m just visualizing the belt.
Alex Pereira on his YouTube channel
Alex Pereira captured the middleweight title, moved up, and captured the 205 lbs title while also defending twice against two former champions. He did all this in under three years in the promotion and nine fights under his belt. A move to heavyweight would mean he would face the ultimate heavy hitters. According to experts, they would not be much interest in trading punches with the former kickboxing champion.
Jon Jones is currently the reigning champion in the heavyweight division. He moved up from light heavyweight last year and captured the vacant heavyweight title. Meanwhile, Tom Aspinall beat Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 to become the interim heavyweight champion. The two are the top likely contenders to challenge Pereira if he dares step into the 265 lbs weight class.
Alex Pereira is not interested in fighting Tom Aspinall for the interim title
Jon Jones has been out due to injury since last year. When he comes back he has a title bout scheduled against former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. So if Pereira does move to the 265 lbs division just yet, he would have to wait around before he can lay his hands on a potential title fight.
Alex Pereira is not interested in fighting Tom Aspinall (Image via Imago)But what about Tom Aspinall? The Brit will defend his interim title against Curtis Blaydes this July at UFC 304. However, the Brazilian is not interested in fighting the interim heavyweight champion just yet. Poatan recently released a YouTube video where he revealed why.
It doesn’t interest me at the moment to fight him. It doesn’t make sense to dispute the interim belt. I am not belittling him, I respect him a lot. I think he is an incredible athlete, a guy who is very dangerous and technical. I’m just talking about disputing an interim belt. There is no point for me.
Alex Pereira on his YouTube channel
-Advertisement-
As for Pereira, he recently headlined two major UFC events where he defended his light heavyweight title, both on short notice. He also broke both his toes so as per his video, Poatan is out at least until later this year. When he does step back into the octagon, he will likely face Magomed Ankalaev who is his biggest potential opponent in the 205 lbs weight class right now.
!
