A long-mooted meeting of current Octagon gold holders Jon Jones and Alex Pereira is slated amid major fan-anticipation — albeit in the training room, with the latter confirming plans to share the mats with the former ahead of his return to action at UFC 309 in November at Madison Square Garden.
Jones, a current heavyweight champion and former two-time undisputed light heavyweight gold holder, finally booked his hiatus-snapping return to action at the end of the year at UFC 309 — with the promotion confirming his Madison Square Garden clash against the returning Stipe Miocic during last weekend’s Noche UFC broadcast.
As for former two-division titleholder, Pereira is set to headline the next flagship event for the organization — booking a UFC 307 main event fight with surging knockout artist, Khalil Rountree in Salt Lake City, Utah just weeks away.
Alex Pereira expects to train with Jon Jones ahead of UFC 309
And long-linked with a title fight at the heavyweight limit against Rochester veteran, Jones in a bid to become the first three-weight champion in Octagon antiquity, Pereira revealed plans to at least train with the former ahead of his November return in his native New York.
It was awesome to meet him (Jon Jones), he’s a very nice guy,” Alex Pereira told TNT Sports during his appearance at the Las Vegas Sphere. “We talked, we talked about training together. People talk about me fighting Jon Jones, going up to the heavyweight division, but I don’t know if maybe he has just one fight left. So for me to worry about my weight class is something that’s maybe too much. Right now, maybe we’re going to start training together.”
We’ve been talking a little bit about training together for a long time, but I think it’s going to happen,” Alex Pereira told Full Send MMA. “His fight’s going to be in November. Every time you leave a fight it takes a week or two to recover from small injuries. But I think I’ll have enough time to go over there.”
“Today I saw him more fit than we last saw him, he looks really good and I want to grab his experience,” Alex Pereira explained. “People talk about us fighting, but people talk about him fighting one time, one or twice more. I don’t know if I’ll be able to share the cage with him, but I want to get the experience of training with him.”