SALT LAKE CITY – Alex Pereira still hopes to compete at heavyweight some day.
Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) retained his light heavyweight title in Saturday’s UFC 307 headliner at Delta Center when he brutally finished Khalil Rountree by Round 4 TKO.
Prior to beating Rountree for his third title defense in seven months, Pereira expressed interest in dropping back down to middleweight to challenge Dricus Du Plessis. But with his training partner Sean Strickland looking for his title-fight rematch with Du Plessis, “Poatan” has now changed his tune.
“We saw that Dricus is going to be fighting Sean Strickland. (Strickland) is a training partner of mine,” Pereira told Joe Rogan in his post-fight octagon interview (h/t UFC). “I don’t want to get in his way. I can move up to heavyweight, but this division is great. I feel great with this weight cut, and this is where I’m at.”
That doesn’t mean Pereira doesn’t have heavyweight in his sights. He may plan on staying at light heavyweight for the time being, but he hopes to eventually make the move up.
“I’ve called for (heavyweight) before, and Dana came in there and was very happy, and he said he was going to take care of me,” Pereira told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at the UFC 307 post-fight press conference. “I think that if the UFC wants to please me, I think maybe a fight at heavyweight one day would be something that would really please me.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
