After a hugely successful 2024 which saw him finish the year as Fighter of the Year and the UFC’s biggest active star, Alex Pereira teased a potential move up to heavyweight.
In 2024 UFC light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira, defended his title three times, the most of any champion throughout the year.
The 37-year-old headlined two of the UFC’s biggest events of the year in the monumental UFC 300 and the International Fight Week event, UFC 303, both on relatively short notice.
Rumors of Alex Pereira’s next fight continue
After knocking out Khalil Rountree Jr at UFC 307 this past October, ‘Poatan’ teased a potential move up to the heavyweight division.
Talks then intensified when UFC heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, claimed that he would prefer to fight the Brazilian over the interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, trying to set up a super fight.
‘Bones’ then went on to defend his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 and stated that unless he can fight Pereira next, he will likely retire instead of fighting Aspinall.
Despite that, negotiations then began between the promotion and both Jones and Aspinall, with UFC boss, Dana White ‘100%’ confident that they could get that fight done.
With that, rumors then began to circulate that Pereira could still move up to heavyweight for his next fight and fight contender, Alexander Volkov.
The rumor was sparked by Brazilian journalist, Laerte Viana, who claimed that the fight was being discussed following Pereira’s claim that his next fight wouldn’t be against light heavyweight number one contender, Magomed Ankalaev.
Alex Pereira’s heavyweight move shut down as Ariel Helwani provides an update
Volkov was on the wrong side of an extremely controversial decision loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC 310 that even White disagreed with.
Despite that, rumors of Pereira moving up to fight Volkov have been shut down by reputable MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani, who provided an update on what to expect for ‘Poatan’s’ next fight.
Ankalaev felt hard done by to miss out on the light heavyweight title shot at UFC 307, and the large majority of fans agreed with him considering his 13-fight unbeaten streak.
UFC commentator, Joe Rogan, recently shared a theory as to why Ankalaev might not have been next for Pereira, highlighting that Ramadan is during the time when Pereira is targeting his return.
It is unclear as of now what date the promotion is targeting for Pereira’s first title defense of 2025, with ‘Poatan’ hopeful of a return in March.