Ahead of his title defense against Khalil Rountree Jr at UFC 307 this coming Saturday, Alex Pereira has talked about what his next move may be amid talks of switching weight classes.
UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has the chance to break Ronda Rousey’s longstanding UFC record of the least amount of time between three title defenses this coming weekend at UFC 307.
Heading into his third title defense, the main talking point has been that Khalil Rountree Jr may not be the most deserved contender, with the majority of fans under the belief that ‘Poatan’ should be defending against Magomed Ankalaev.
Alex Pereira vows to continue defending his light heavyweight title following UFC 307
Fortunately for UFC fans and Ankalaev, ahead of his fight against ‘The War Horse’, the Brazilian champion has vowed that if he is successful in defending his title again, he will remain at light heavyweight and continue defending his title.
The 37-year-old has previously teased moving back down to middleweight to fight the champion, Dricus Du Plessis, as well as teasing a potential move up to heavyweight to attempt to become the first three-weight champion.
“I will actually choose to defend my belt. For me to go to a lower weight class would take some time and would need some more preparation, for me to go to a higher weight class it also takes more preparation so right now the way that it is at light heavyweight is perfect,” Pereira revealed at the UFC 307 media day.
Pereira did recently bump into the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, at UFC Noche, and it gave the Brazillian a chance to size up ‘Bones’. Despite that, Pereira admitted that the two agreed to train together instead of fighting each other.
“Well, I was only thinking about training because Jones expressed that his next fight might be his last fight so I want to go over there and learn a little bit from him. I’m a guy that has an open mind and I think it would be great,” Pereira added.
Pereira comments on potentially fighting another kickboxing rival in the UFC
On next week’s Dana White’s Contender Series, one of Pereira’s old kickboxing rivals, Artem Vakhitov, looks to earn himself a UFC contract, and he has openly talked about wanting to meet Pereira in the Octagon.
The two have competed twice in kickboxing, holding one win each, with their last fight coming in 2021.
Although Ankalaev would likely be ‘Poatan’s’ next challenge if he gets through Rountree Jr and Ankalaev gets through Aleksandar Rakic, the 37-year-old has spoken about the potential of fighting Vakhitov in the UFC.
“Well, I stopped following kickboxing so I don’t know how he’s doing so I don’t know his potential (in the UFC) but I think fighting me in the UFC is going to be hard (for him).
“People get mistaken sometimes, they think it’s easy to just make a story like they did with Israel Adesanya, guys that have beat me in a fight long ago they think they can just come here and make the same story. Bro, they are not me, they’re not Israel Adesanya, look at the whole story behind that to get to that,” the champion finished.