Dana White loves that Alex Pereira wants to fight everybody.
It only took ‘Poatan’ seven fights inside the Octagon to etch his name in the history books as a two-division world champion, capturing both the middleweight and light heavyweight titles. On October 5, the ‘Brazilian Boogeyman’ will step into the main event spotlight for his third title defense of 2024 when he meets heavy-hitting contender Khalil Rountree at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City.
There, Pereira will put his 205-pound crown on the line following a pair of highlight-reel KOs against former champions Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka.
Even though Pereira already has another fight lined up, ‘Poatan’ recently expressed interest in venturing back down to 185 for a fight with current middleweight king Dricus Du Plessis.
Asked about Pereira’s plans following Tuesday’s edition of Dana White’s Contender Series, the UFC CEO said that Pereira’s desire to fight anyone and everyone is a very good problem for the promotion to have.
“My take on him is, he’s f*cking nasty,” White told reporters at Tuesday’s DWCS post-fight press conference. “That’s my take on him. He wants to move up. He wants to move down. He wants to go everywhere. That’s why people love him. Those are the type of fighters people love. Pereira wants to fight everybody. I love it.
“… The thing that’s great about it is, this is why I said a minute ago everybody loves him and he’s great. But it also gives us a ton of options that as we’re in matchmaking, ‘Should we do this, should we do that? Shouldn’t we do this, shouldn’t we do that?’ It’s a good problem to have with a guy like him. How about he’s on vacation and accepts the last-minute fight? Everything about Alex Pereira is what makes fans absolutely love the guy” (h/t MMA Junkie).
‘DDP’ warns Alex Pereira against moving back down to middleweight
Following his fourth-round submission victory over Israel Adesanya in Perth, Du Plessis is expected to rematch the man he took the title from in January, Sean Strickland.
Responding to Pereira’s challenge, ‘DDP’ was seemingly open to the potential superfight and broke out a little MMA math by pointing out the fact that Pereira once got slept by the guy he just tapped out in The Land Down Under.
“If Izzy [Adesanya] stiffens you like that, you do not wanna be in there with me,” Du Plessis said at the UFC 305 post-fight press conference. “Especially not when you’re gonna come in there with the excuses, ‘No, I cut too much weight…’ That’s gonna happen. Everybody’s gonna say that. So stay at 205. Fight your fight against the #8 ranked guy. Fight your fight there and enjoy it.”
“If [Sean] Strickland is the next fight, the people wanna see that fight… So, let me handle my business, you handle your business. You don’t have to cut the weight so you have some sort of excuse. I’ll come up after the Strickland fight, I’ll come up to 205, and we’ll sort it out there,” Du Plessis said of a potential fight with Pereira” (h/t Sports Illustrated).
