Outside Source
Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira reclaimed his title by knocking out Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320 last year, avenging a previous loss. Pereira is now eyeing a move up to heavyweight. White says “Poatan” has always stepped up for the UFC and deserves to do whatever he wants. White assures that the promotion will work with the Brazilian on whatever his next plan is.
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“He’s one of those guys who always steps up and does whatever we need him to do,” White said at the UFC Houston post-fight press conference. “Whatever that guy wants to do, we’ll work with him.”
The Need to Defend
However, White doesn’t think the same about middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev won the middleweight title via a dominant unanimous decision against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319 last year. “Borz” is now eyeing a move up to light heavyweight to challenge Pereira. However, White would rather see the undefeated Chechen-born defend his middleweight title first.
“I’d like to see him defend his title first at that weight,” White said. “I’d like to see him defend his title before he talks about jumping around. You’re gonna keep up in weight divisions without defending? I’d rather see him defend.”
Pereira (13-3) made his UFC debut in 2021 and won the middleweight title by defeating Israel Adesanya the next year. Pereira moved up to light heavyweight after losing his title to Adesanya in the immediate rematch. Pereira won the vacant light heavyweight title against Jiri Prochazka in 2023 and defended it thrice within a year before losing to Ankalaev. The Brazilian is arguably the UFC’s biggest star, especially after reclaiming his title against Ankalaev.
Meanwhile, despite looking promising early on, Chimaev’s (15-0) UFC career has been plagued by injuries and weight cut struggles. After missing weight by a whopping 7.5 pounds that led to the reshuffling of the entire UFC 279 main card in 2022, Chimaev finally moved up to middleweight for good. “Borz” finally became a UFC champion last year, five years after his UFC debut in 2020.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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