{"id":840308,"date":"2026-08-02T18:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840308\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:27:09","slug":"pereira-refuses-to-wait-for-gane-vs-aspinall-i-want-to-fight-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840308\/","title":{"rendered":"Pereira refuses to wait for Gane vs. Aspinall: \u2018I want to fight before\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">There\u2019s been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/459399\/poatan-privilege-alex-pereira-warns-paulo-costa-he-can-swoop-in-for-ufc-light-heavyweight-title-shot-whenever-he-wants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a lot of speculation<\/a> regarding what \u201cPoatan\u201d might do following an upset loss to Ciryl Gane in June. The former middleweight and light heavyweight champion made it clear that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-white-house-2026-fight-card-start-time-full-results-dana-white-conor-mcgregor-cbs-mma\/449671\/israel-adesanya-cheering-former-rival-alex-pereira-on-for-third-title-its-like-seeing-the-first-person-climb-everest\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">winning the heavyweight title<\/a> is still his top priority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cSince I entered the organization, I always take one step at a time,\u201d Pereira said through a translator. \u201cMy objective was to get to the belt, to become champion, and I was able to do that. Then I moved up a division. That was my idea, to become champion in another division. I went after the third belt. This time, this fight did not work out, but I have a lot of willpower and I am very excited for my next fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWhen I am focused on something, I always achieve it, and I will not let it escape next time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With the state of the heavyweight division, Pereira could probably wait until interim champ Ciryl Gane and undisputed champ Tom Aspinall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/456824\/ufc-heavyweight-champ-tom-aspinall-ready-to-fight-ciryl-gane-were-just-waiting-for-dates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fight to unify the title<\/a> in the fall and then face the winner. But that\u2019d leave him on the sideline for too long, something \u201cPoatan\u201d is not a fan of.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI do not know what will happen, and I do not know how long that fight will take,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cFor sure I want to fight before, and after that I want to fight for the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">As for who Pereira might fight, the Brazilian sounded indifferent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cAny one,\u201d he declared. \u201cI do not have an opponent. I still have not returned to the conversation with the organization, but as I have always been saying, whoever they think they have to put there, I will be fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been a lot of speculation regarding what \u201cPoatan\u201d might do following an upset loss to Ciryl Gane&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-840308","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840308","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=840308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}