LAS VEGAS – Alex Pereira is down for a quick turnaround at heavyweight, but Dana White isn’t too on board.
Pereira (10-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) retained his light heavyweight title when he knocked out Jamahal Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in Round 1 of Saturday’s UFC 300 main event. During his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Pereira said he wants to compete in a heavyweight bout at UFC 301 May 4 in Rio.
Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who was in attendance, posted a cryptic image of him staring at Pereira from the crowd. When asked about the post, Pereira said he’s not concerned with who he fights.
“I don’t know man, only he can respond to that,” Pereira told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at the UFC 300 post-fight press conference. “When I said I want to fight at heavyweight, I’m not going to give names right here. I told them I want to fight at heavyweight, so whoever they choose.”
However, UFC CEO Dana White dismissed the idea of Pereira at heavyweight during the post-fight news conference. He’d rather “Poatan” remain at 205 pounds.
“When you think about him moving up to heavyweight – you’ve got (Jon) Jones, you’ve got Aspinall and the list goes on and on in that heavyweight division,” White said. “Heavyweight division is nasty.
“I don’t know if that’s the right move for him. He looked damn good tonight in the division he’s in, so I think he might want to stick around there for a minute. But I don’t know. These are all things that we’ll talk about.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
