Alex Pereira has been warned by his next UFC opponent Jan Blachowicz that he will be sent back down to middleweight after their upcoming fight.
Pereira, 35, makes his UFC light-heavyweight debut when he faces the division's former champion Blachowicz, 40, on July 29 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Pereira is moving up a weight class after his brutal knockout loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 last month, but Blachowicz thinks the former middleweight titleholder won't be staying at 205lb for very long.
“I think this is my job in the UFC sometimes. I need to do it in the best way, to send him back to the lower category,” Blachowicz said on The MMA Hour. "For sure, he’s going to have power but what I always say if you change weight category you can spar in your gym with the bigger guys but when you fight, it’s completely different. Timing, speed, everything is different. Three times I fight before with guys from the lower division and I won everything. This time will be the same.”
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“If I win the fight, my next fight will be for the title. It’s bigger motivation for me and thanks to Alex that he moved to our category, new blood. I’d like to know what place I am right now. It’s very good for me that after this fight, my next fight will be for the title. I’m just happy to take the belt again to Poland."
Pereira could propel himself into title contention at his new division with a win against Blachowicz, who missed out on the chance to reclaim the belt he once held by fighting to a draw with Magomed Ankalaev last December. Blachowicz was tapped out by Pereira's training partner Glover Teixeira in October 2021 and 'Poatan' takes confidence in the now-retired UFC veteran's victory.
"[Blachowicz] is a dangerous guy, an experienced guy. A guy we know because of my training partner Glover Teixeira, who has fought him before. I'm sure training hard and together with Glover, he will pass on a lot of stuff to me like he is always doing. Everybody knows Blachowicz is a dangerous guy, an allrounder, but I think it's a good first fight at 205lb for me," Pereira said on his YouTube channel.
"When I say my first fight at light-heavyweight, people would have thought 'Oh it's against an easy opponent'. No, all of you know my story. I was middleweight champion, so for sure the UFC wanted to give me someone ranked in the top five. It wasn't a surprise, we were negotiating for a while and I was waiting for him."
