Alex Pereira has earned the right to pick his own shots, which is why the reigning UFC light heavyweight king will only move up to heavyweight for a superfight against Jon Jones.
Can you blame him?
Pereira, who is coming off knockout wins at UFC 300 and UFC 303 to earn back-to-back title defenses, just passed Jones on the current pound-for-pound rankings. That may not sit well with UFC CEO Dana White, but Pereira’s recent activity (five fights over the past 15 months) and stranglehold on the 205-pound division has cemented his spot as one of the best in the game.
Jones seems ready to entertain a clash with Pereira in what would be one of the biggest fights in MMA right now. Pereira has gotten that big and Jones is that feared. A clash between the two would be instant fireworks and provide fight fans with the matchup they actually want to see. After all, a planned title fight between Jones and former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic just isn’t that interesting.
For Pereira, it’s Jones or nobody at this current time when it comes to moving up to heavyweight. Pereira has looked dominant at light heavyweight, but there’s still some contenders to face (i.e. Magomed Ankalaev). If he was going to leave his division behind it would have to be for the real belt. That means a potential clash with interim UFC heavyweight king Tom Aspinall wouldn’t cut it.
“It doesn’t interest me to fight [Aspinall] at the moment,” said Pereira during a recent submission to his YouTube channel. “To be honest, heavyweight isn’t my goal, it isn’t my main focus. Tom Aspinall, not talking him as a fighter, I’m talking positions. I think I’m in another position now. It doesn’t make sense for me to fight for the interim belt, honestly.”
“I am not taking anything away from [Aspinall], I respect him a lot,” he continued. “I think he’s an incredible athlete, a guy that is very dangerous technically. I’m just talking about fighting for an interim belt. There’s no point for me. So I rule that out, there is no possibility to fight him now. If he was champion and he said that, of course we would be promoting that fight. I would force it more, but there is no point to fight for the interim belt right now.”
“Like I said, my focus is on my category,” Pereira explained. “I’m evolving a lot, doing very good. That is my focus, I’m doing a lot of good things in this division. I’m very happy with this. I’m not going to force anything. I think when I go to heavyweight, I have the weight and name today to fight back at middleweight — which I won’t be doing, but If I did go back to middleweight — I’d fight the belt. If I go to heavyweight, I would fight the belt. Like I said, I’m 37, so I have to go straight to the top, straight to the belt. If it’s Jon Jones, if it’s Aspinall, whoever, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m just eyeing the belt.”
Thoughts?