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“Poatan” wants to test his mettle at heavyweight. | Getty/UFC
Alex Pereira might not be long for the light heavyweight division.
“Poatan” regained the 205-pound belt with an emphatic first-round technical knockout of Magomed Ankalaev in the UFC 320 headliner at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night. While the Brazilian initially had plans to issue a post-fight callout to Jon Jones, he instead opted to ask for a moment of silence to honor Jones’ late brother, Arthur, who passed away on Friday.
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“With all due respect, with all the respect I have for the situation, and I’ve said this in the back: a lot of people try to create a lot of stuff around this,” Pereira said said through a translator at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Again, please, with all the respect, I was gonna ask for Jon Jones at the White House, but with everything that happened, it’s not the right time to talk about it.”
In a separate post-fight interview with the UFC, Pereira made his future intentions clear.
“I want a superfight. It would be at the White House against Jon Jones,” he said. “That’s a superfight.”
Jones took time on social media to thank Pereira for his moment of tribute. “Bones” ended a short-lived retirement earlier this year after President Donald Trump announced plans to hold a UFC event at the White House. While UFC CEO Dana White has shot down the idea of Jones competing on the card, the former two-division champion has remained steadfast in his desire to make his Octagon return at the event next year.
As for Pereira, he doesn’t plan on relinquishing the 205-pound strap if he moves up to heavyweight.
“I don’t think that’s needed,” Pereira said. “Everyone knows how often I fight, so that’s not gonna be an issue.”
White: There’s Still Interesting Fights for Pereira at LHW
However, Pereira doesn’t yet have White’s full approval for the potential move, though it sounds like the UFC CEO could be convinced down the road.
“I don’t know,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “There’s still fights here in this division but we’ll see. This guy has been an absolute stud for us. He’s on vacation in Australia, flies over and fights because somebody fell out. He fights when he’s hurt. He doesn’t care. He wants to fight everybody. He wants to move up to heavyweight. He’s a dream to have in this organization.”
For White, a primary concern is how Pereira, a former middleweight champion, might fare in the big man’s division.
“Probably that he was a middleweight and he’s going to jump up two weight classes in the UFC,” White said. “It’s not like jumping up two weight classes in boxing. It’s a big jump.
“It’s not that I have reservations about it. He’s in a division where there’s still some interesting fights. I like the guy so much. We’ll see. We’ll have to talk about it. I just don’t see why, unless he wants to retire, why throwing him at heavyweight makes any sense other than I just end up saying he wants to do it so bad, I’ll just say yes.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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