UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira didn’t look too undersized when facing off with a top-ranked heavyweight.
Pereira (9-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC), a former middleweight champion, defeated Jan Blachowicz then knocked out Jiri Prochazka to claim the 205-pound title this past November at UFC 295.
Pereira’s coach and mentor Glover Teixeira claimed that “Poatan” is disciplined enough to compete at heavyweight, and we got a small taste of what that could be like when he faced off with former interim champ Ciryl Gane at the Ares FC 18 event, which takes place Friday in France.
Check out their random face-off below courtesy of La Sueur:
Le face-off entre Ciryl Gane et Alex Pereira pic.twitter.com/67bHWHJa0j
— La Sueur (@LaSueur_off) December 14, 2023
It took Pereira just seven UFC fights to become a two-division champion, the fewest in company history. The former two-division Glory Kickboxing champion’s MMA resume already includes wins over notable names like ex-champs Prochazka, Blachowicz, and Israel Adesanya, as well as current UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland.
Alex Pereira at heavyweight? UFC champ ‘Poatan’ has fun staredown with Ciryl Gane