{"id":725170,"date":"2026-06-09T13:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725170\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:01:11","slug":"pereira-wont-wait-for-aspinall-i-want-another-fight-as-soon-as-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725170\/","title":{"rendered":"Pereira won\u2019t wait for Aspinall: \u2018I want another fight as soon as possible\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane going down this weekend at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-white-house-2026-fight-card-start-time-full-results-dana-white-conor-mcgregor-cbs-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC Freedom 250<\/a> for the interim title, the heavyweight division is on the move. And Pereira has just declared that if Tom Aspinall doesn\u2019t return soon enough, it will move on without him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Aspinall hasn\u2019t fought since an October 2025 \u2018No Contest\u2019 where Ciryl Gane <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/406444\/tom-aspinall-accuses-ciryl-gane-of-intentional-eye-pokes-at-ufc-321-he-was-cheating-from-the-first-second\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">double-eye poked him badly.<\/a> Since then it\u2019s been nothing but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/412188\/tom-aspinall-undergoing-two-eye-surgeries-to-fix-damage-from-ufc-321-eye-pokes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surgeries<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/430331\/video-tom-aspinall-back-in-gym-resumes-light-training-ahead-ufc-return\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">very slow improvements.<\/a> As of now, the undisputed British heavyweight champion is still waiting for clearance from doctors to return to full training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That has Alex Pereira preparing to move forward with or without a unification match should he beat Gane on the White House lawn this Sunday June 14th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI don\u2019t think Tom\u2019s going to be ready,\u201d Pereira told TNT Sports through an interpreter. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s even training. He\u2019s recovering from surgery and then training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI\u2019m a guy that, I want to get ready, I want to fight somebody as soon as possible,\u201d he continued. \u201cI want to get another fight as soon as possible. I want to make sure I finish the year. Again, I\u2019m 38 years old. I ain\u2019t got time to lose. So I need to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The White House fight is also Pereira\u2019s first bout since October 2024, where he stunned the world by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-320-ankalaev-vs-pereira-rematch-start-time-full-results-espn-mma\/394091\/ufc-320-the-morning-after-savage-alex-pereira-ko-cements-light-heavyweight-legacy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">smashing Magomed Ankalaev<\/a> in the first round to take back the light heavyweight title. \u201cPoatan\u201d likes to stay active, and one fight a year just isn\u2019t enough \u2026 especially when he\u2019ll be making triple-champ money if he wins. We\u2019re not surprised he\u2019ll accept anyone other than Aspinall for a defense. Stylistically, Aspinall is a nightmare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">As for Aspinall, he doesn\u2019t seem interested in hurrying back if doctors don\u2019t clear him. And why should he? When he was interim champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/5\/12\/24428434\/tom-aspinall-has-had-enough-of-jon-jones-waiting-game-i-need-to-move-on-and-do-something-else\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">waiting for Jon Jones<\/a> to sort his s&#8211;t out, he had to defend his interim belt. But here\u2019s hoping this is all just talk and Aspinall will be able to fight the winner of Pereira vs. Gane by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane going down this weekend at UFC Freedom 250 for the interim title,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396,125620],"class_list":["post-725170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-white-house-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}