UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira isn’t so far removed from middleweight that he’s forgotten what it feels like to get down to 185 pounds.
And for that reason, the 205-pound champ thinks if he did want to become a simultaneous two-division champion, going back down to middleweight is the easier path based on the opponent – and that the only tough part about it would be making the weight.
Conversely, if he went up to heavyweight to chase a second belt – and a title in a third division in the UFC, which is unprecedented – he’d currently be gunning for Jon Jones, himself a former light heavyweight champion. There, Pereira thinks, the matchup is tougher than at 185 against Dricus Du Plessis, but he doesn’t have the need to cut weight.
“Dricus definitely is an easier fight than fighting Jon Jones,” Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) told the Full Send podcast backstage at UFC 306 at Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday. “I think making weight will be harder than that fight.”
Alex Pereira calls Dricus du Plessis a clown and says he's scared to fight him 😳
"Dricus is definitely an easier fight than fighting Jon Jones. I think making weight will be harder than [fighting Dricus]… I showed interest many times but he never replies…
He shows that… pic.twitter.com/SyP64818rA
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) September 15, 2024
Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) fights former heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) at Madison Square Garden in the UFC 309 on Nov. 16 in New York. Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) won the middleweight title with a split decision over Sean Strickland in January, then defended it in August with a fourth-round submission of ex-champ Israel Adesanya.
Pereira has been one of the busiest champions in UFC history since he beat Adesanya for the middleweight title in late 2022. He lost it to him in a rematch five months later, then went up to 205 pounds. That would make going back to 185 the biggest test, he said – not the opponent. Du Plessis, he thinks, doesn’t take things seriously enough to make a proposed fight realistic.
“I did stop (fighting at middleweight) because I said my body was going to break with two or three fights having to make that cut,” Pereira said. “Now I think I’ve rested long enough, I could definitely do the cut and make that fight happen, but it depends on him. I’ve showed the interest many times, but he never replied. The way he presents himself, he’s always joking in his response. He’s never serious. He’s always trolling somehow when the subject is presented to him. He never takes it serious, so he shows that he’s scared. So I asked the UFC to make me a better fight. (Du Plessis is a) clown.”
Pereira had one tune-up fight at light heavyweight about 14 months ago. Then at UFC 29, he beat Jiri Prochazka for the vacant 205-pound title. He defended it on short notice in the UFC 300 main event in April against Jamahal Hill with a first-round knockout. Then in another short-notice test thanks to Conor McGregor drama, he beat Prochazka again at UFC 303 in June.
Already, he’s booked for what will be his fourth title fight in less than 11 months when he meets challenger Khalil Rountree Jr. in the UFC 307 main event Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City. He is as much as a 5-1 favorite in the fight – by far the highest odds in his favor of any of his UFC bouts.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
