Alex Pereira is now just a month out from his highly anticipated rematch against Magomed Ankalaev.
Earlier this year at UFC 313, Alex Pereira‘s impressive light heavyweight title reign came to a disappointing end when he was dominated by Magomed Ankalaev.
Following his loss to the Russian, it seemed as though Pereira’s relationship with the UFC took a hit after he made a tweet online claiming that they were playing with his career.
Despite that, he came out shortly after and claimed that it wasn’t him that made the post and that he was hacked. However, in a recent interview, ‘Poatan’ revealed that he wasn’t hacked and it was in fact him that posted it.
Pereira reveals career move is inevitable
Although there seemed to be tension between the Brazilian and the UFC, luckily for him and the fans, it was announced that he and Ankalaev will rematch at UFC 320 on October 5.
After beginning his career at middleweight, it was inevitable that Pereira would make his move up to light heavyweight at some point due to his size.
And even though he eventually moved up to 205lbs, the 38-year-old still has to cut a drastic amount of weight to make the light heavyweight limit.
During his time out of the Octagon, Pereira walks around as heavy as a heavyweight would and has continuously teased a move up to heavyweight.
And in a recent interview ahead of his UFC 320 rematch, ‘Poatan’ has once again revealed that a move up to heavyweight it seemingly inevitable.
“No, there was absolutely none (consideration to move up to heavyweight before this fight), I took a break, training hard, training heavy, gained some muscle and size and focused on this,” Pereira told the Ariel Helwani Show.
“I’m gonna listen to my body. Eventually when it gets harder for me to get to light heavyweight, I’m gonna go to heavyweight,” he revealed.
Pereira responds to Ankalaev’s criticism of his training
Ahead of his rematch against Ankalaev, Pereira has shared training videos online of him defending takedowns and working on his grappling.
However, in the first fight, the fight stayed on the feet and Ankalaev picked him apart in the striking. And with that, Ankalaev criticised Pereira’s training, claiming that he’s training for the wrong thing.
‘Poatan’ responded to Ankalaev’s criticism recently, using his familiar term to shut down the champion.