Alex Pereira: Jamahal Hill isn’t the second-best — or even third-best — light heavyweight in UFC

Alex Pereira’s first defense of his UFC light heavyweight title comes against ex-champion Jamahal Hill in the main event of UFC 300, which takes place April 13 in Las Vegas. However, Pereira doesn’t consider Hill to be the second-best 205-pounder on the UFC roster.

“Poatan” went into The MMA Hour studio on Wednesday to discuss the newly announced clash with Hill, and was asked if Hill is the best talent in the division after him.

“He’s not in second,” Pereira said in Portuguese. “I don’t know which position I’d put him, but at least fourth. … If I were to move up to light heavyweight today and had to make my debut and there’s Jamahal Hill, Jan Blachowicz, and Jiri Prochazka, and I had to choose the best fight for me out of those three, I’d choose Jamahal.”

Pereira is 2-0 since departing the UFC middleweight division, having defeated Blachowicz via decision before knocking out Prochazka for the vacant belt. He revealed Wednesday that he recently signed a new eight-fight UFC contract. And while discussing other challengers in the light heavyweight division, Pereira pointed out Magomed Ankalaev as one name in particular that he’d like to face one day, if only to silence critics and doubters.

“[Fighting] Ankalaev would be good because many people talk,” Pereira said. “Sometimes we want to prove a little bit, not to the fans, but to specialists that say this is a [tough] fight and whatnot. People don’t know the way I train. We know that a fight is a fight, but it would be nice to be able to prove to these people that I’m good on the ground as well.”

A former two-division kickboxing champion in GLORY and now the 205-pound king of the UFC after claiming — and dropping — the 185-pound title, Pereira confirmed he’d already verbally agreed to headline UFC 301 on May 4 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However, once presented with the opportunity, he preferred to headline UFC 300 instead because of the historic magnitude of the show.

“Poatan” also explained that competing in the United States is better for him since he lives and trains alongside Glover Teixeira in Danbury, CT. Pereira, however, reiterated that he’s serious about volunteering to fight at both UFC 300 and UFC 301 over a span of 21 days as long as he’s injury-free coming out of the tricentennial show.

As for Hill, the former champ had to vacate the title he captured by beating Teixeira when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in July 2023. Now he’ll return to the UFC less than a year later. Pereira admits he already had his own doubts about whether Hill could make it to the cage on May 4 given his recovery timeline, and now UFC 300 means three less weeks to prepare.

“He took the fight so I think he’s alright,” Pereira said. “No one can answer for him. If he’s fine, well, let’s do it.”

Pereira declined to give a prediction as to how he expects to defeat Hill at the T-Mobile Arena on April 13, but is extremely confidence. “Poatan”, however, won’t overlook his foe.

“I want to come out of there with the victory, of course,” Pereira said. “All the fights, if you ask me, I don’t know how it’s going to be, if it’s a decision, if it’s a knockout, if I’m going to win. I want to win, right? Everybody had their own way of talking, [some talk] like there’s no other reality. In fighting, you either lose or win, and I know that. It’s good to know that because if I’m like, ‘No, all I do is win,’ you can get frustrated. The same thing if you say the next fight is going to be easy but it ends up being hard and you’re frustrated. I know about the reality, you either lose or win. And what do I want? I want to win.”