Dana White explains why he’s hesitant to let Alex Pereira move to heavyweight
Alex Pereira has already accomplished a lot in a very short amount of time in his UFC career, but lately plenty of calls have risen for him to get the chance to become the first-ever three-division champion.
In only took him seven fights to become a two-division champion after conquering both light heavyweight and middleweight, but what about moving to heavyweight after his latest win over Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303? Following Pereira’s win, UFC CEO Dana White said he barely had time to wrap the belt around the Brazilian’s waist before he had UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in his ear asking about him going to heavyweight.
It turns out Rogan wasn’t alone.
“What it sounds like to me, not just Joe Rogan [but] everybody else wants to see him go to heavyweight,” White said at the UFC 303 post-fight press conference. “When we were talking to him tonight, he doesn’t give a shit. He said, ‘I’ll fight at heavyweight. I’ll fight wherever you want, whenever you want.’
“He’s ready to turn around and wants to fight again right way. He’s that guy. He’s a savage. The guy’s an absolute stud.”
The heavyweight division is a bit tied up right now, with interim champion Tom Aspinall preparing for a showdown with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July. Meanwhile, undisputed heavyweight king Jon Jones is expected to clash with Stipe Miocic later this year, with the fight currently targeted for November at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Pereira could potentially target the winner of one or both of those fights to take a shot at becoming a three-division champ, but White still doesn’t love the idea — at least not yet.
“It’s not that I’m not into it — the guy was a middleweight, then moves up to light heavyweight,” White explained. “He’s had a couple fights there, defended his title. But it’s not like this guy’s been in the division for two years and he ran through everybody that’s in the division.
“Think about this, when those two squared off — not just him, Jiri too — when you see me standing in the middle of these guys, these guys are f*cking monsters. They’re both big guys. Imagine they were both middleweights at one time — it’s insane, but they look good at light heavyweight. It’s a whole other level going up to heavyweight. Even as big as Jon Jones is, as good as Jon Jones is, when Jon Jones was moving up to heavyweight, we’re like, ‘This is going to be interesting.’”
For now, Pereira’s time served at light heavyweight seems to be the biggest obstacle standing in his way from moving to heavyweight.
White doesn’t hate the idea long term, but as it stands, Pereira currently holds a 3-0 record at light heavyweight with two title defenses against Prochazka and one against former champion Jamahal Hill at UFC 300.
Rather than packing on the pounds and attempting to conquer a third division, White prefers to see Pereira continue to cement himself as the best light heavyweight in the world, and then eventually the time will come to make the move to heavyweight.
“If he cleaned out a division and we were like, there’s literally nobody left for this guy to fight, and he’s 37, if he wants to move up to heavyweight [we’ll let him], but that’s not the case,” White said.
“You said he was 230 [pounds] today, right? Chuck [Liddell] and Forrest Griffin used to walk around at 230 and they would cut down to 205. That’s not big. Some of these heavyweights are 265. They’re cutting to 265. It’s just another other level.”