Alex Pereira is open to challenging himself at heavyweight in the UFC, but only if he’s competing for undisputed gold.
“Poatan” knocked out Jiri Prochazka to successfully defend his light heavyweight title at UFC 303 in June. Afterward, interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall mentioned his name as a potential challenger in the future, but Pereira isn’t interested in competing for anything less than the official title.
“It doesn’t interest me to fight [Aspinall] at the moment,” Pereira said on his Youtube channel. “To be honest, heavyweight isn’t my goal, it isn’t my main focus. Tom Aspinall, not talking him as a fighter, I’m talking positions. I think I’m in another position now. It doesn’t make sense for me to fight for the interim belt, honestly.”
Aspinall is scheduled to defend his interim heavyweight belt at UFC 304 against Curtis Blaydes, while Jones recovers from shoulder injury and awaits a date to face former champion Stipe Miocic.
“I am not taking anything away from [Aspinall], I respect him a lot,” Pereira said. “I think he’s an incredible athlete, a guy that is very dangerous technically. I’m just talking about fighting for an interim belt. There’s no point for me. So I rule that out, there is no possibility to fight him now. If he was champion and he said that, of course we would be promoting that fight. I would force it more, but there is no point to fight for the interim belt right now.”
Would Pereira react the same way if he saw Jon Jones challenge him, though?
The former UFC middleweight champion and current light heavyweight king said he would be interested, although it’s not his main priority at the moment.
“Like I said, my focus is on my category,” Pereira said. “I’m evolving a lot, doing very good. That is my focus, I’m doing a lot of good things in this division. I’m very happy with this. I’m not going to force anything. I think when I go to heavyweight, I have the weight and name today to fight back at middleweight — which I won’t be doing, but If I did go back to middleweight — I’d fight the belt. If I go to heavyweight, I would fight the belt. Like I said, I’m 37, so I have to go straight to the top, straight to the belt. If it’s Jon Jones, if it’s Aspinall, whoever, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m just eyeing the belt.”
As for his next bout, if it’s at light heavyweight, Pereira doesn’t want to compete before December.
“[Light heavyweight] is where I want to stay,” Pereira said. “My focus is to defend my belt. Doesn’t matter who. A lot of people say [Magomed] Ankalaev, that’s who they are talking about now. People are focused on him, but I’m training well, not just for him, but for anyone. It’s a good fight for me to fight. I wouldn’t say to test myself, but to fight. I’ll be well prepared for him or anyone.”
