Alex Pereira has already achieved so much in a really quick period of time in his UFC profession, however recently loads of calls have risen for him to get the prospect to turn into the first-ever three-division champion.
In solely took him seven fights to turn into a two-division champion after conquering each mild heavyweight and middleweight, however what about shifting to heavyweight after his newest win over Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303? Following Pereira’s win, UFC CEO Dana White mentioned he barely had time to wrap the belt across the Brazilian’s waist earlier than he had UFC shade commentator Joe Rogan in his ear asking about him going to heavyweight.
It seems Rogan wasn’t alone.
“What it sounds prefer to me, not simply Joe Rogan [but] everyone else needs to see him go to heavyweight,” White mentioned on the UFC 303 post-fight press convention. “Once we had been speaking to him tonight, he doesn’t give a shit. He mentioned, ‘I’ll combat at heavyweight. I’ll combat wherever you need, everytime you need.’
“He’s prepared to show round and needs to combat once more proper method. He’s that man. He’s a savage. The man’s an absolute stud.”
The heavyweight division is a bit tied up proper now, with interim champion Tom Aspinall making ready for a showdown with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July. In the meantime, undisputed heavyweight king Jon Jones is predicted to conflict with Stipe Miocic later this yr, with the combat at present focused for November at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York.
Pereira may probably goal the winner of 1 or each of these fights to take a shot at turning into a three-division champ, however White nonetheless doesn’t love the thought — no less than not but.
“It’s not that I’m not into it — the man was a middleweight, then strikes as much as mild heavyweight,” White defined. “He’s had a pair fights there, defended his title. But it surely’s not like this man’s been within the division for 2 years and he ran by means of everyone that’s within the division.
“Take into consideration this, when these two squared off — not simply him, Jiri too — if you see me standing in the midst of these guys, these guys are f*cking monsters. They’re each large guys. Think about they had been each middleweights at one time — it’s insane, however they give the impression of being good at mild heavyweight. It’s an entire different stage going as much as heavyweight. At the same time as large as Jon Jones is, pretty much as good as Jon Jones is, when Jon Jones was shifting as much as heavyweight, we’re like, ‘That is going to be attention-grabbing.’”
For now, Pereira’s time served at mild heavyweight appears to be the most important impediment standing in his method from shifting to heavyweight.
White doesn’t hate the thought long run, however because it stands, Pereira at present holds a 3-0 report at mild heavyweight with two title defenses in opposition to Prochazka and one in opposition to former champion Jamahal Hill at UFC 300.
Somewhat than packing on the kilos and making an attempt to overcome a 3rd division, White prefers to see Pereira proceed to cement himself as the perfect mild heavyweight on the planet, after which ultimately the time will come to make the transfer to heavyweight.
“If he cleaned out a division and we had been like, there’s actually no person left for this man to combat, and he’s 37, if he needs to maneuver as much as heavyweight [we’ll let him], however that’s not the case,” White mentioned.
“You mentioned he was 230 [pounds] at the moment, proper? Chuck [Liddell] and Forrest Griffin used to stroll round at 230 and they’d minimize all the way down to 205. That’s not large. A few of these heavyweights are 265. They’re slicing to 265. It’s simply one other different stage.”
