Alex Pereira hopes to train with Jon Jones before UFC 309: 'I want to grab his experience'
Alex Pereira knows he might never get to fight fellow UFC two-division champion Jon Jones, but he’s content to just train with him.
Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) defends his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the UFC 309 main event Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
If UFC light heavyweight champion Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) can come out unscathed in his title defense against Khalil Rountree (13-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) in the UFC 307 headliner Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City, he hopes to get an opportunity to help Jones prep for Miocic. Pereira and Jones were seated next to each other this past Saturday while in attendance for UFC 306.
“We’ve been talking a little bit about training together for a long time, but I think now it’s going to happen,” Pereira told Full Send MMA through an interpreter. “His fight is going to be in November. Every time you leave a fight, it takes a week or two sometimes to recover from small injuries, but I think I’ll have enough time to go over there.”
Jones once argued that a matchup with Pereira would be the “biggest fight in MMA history.” But after Jones alluded that his upcoming title defense vs. Miocic will likely be his last fight, Pereira sees training with him as the more realistic option.
“Today I saw him more athletic, more fit since he last fought. He looks really good, and I want to grab his experience,” Pereira said. “People talk about us fighting, but people say he’s going to fight one time, once or twice more. I don’t know if I’ll be able to share the cage with him, but at least I want to get the experience of training with him.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.