Alex Pereira has big plans after UFC 320.<\/p>\n
On Saturday night, Pereira reclaimed the light heavyweight title, knocking out Magomed Ankalaev in their rematch. The win returned Pereira back to the top of the heap at 205 pounds, and immediately raised the question of what comes next for \u201cPoatan.\u201d Carlos Ulberg appears next in line at 205 pounds, but middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev also tried to insert himself into the conversation, but neither matchup appears interesting for the once-again light heavyweight king.<\/p>\n
Before losing his title to Ankalaev earlier this year, Pereira was openly courting a move up to heavyweight to challenge for another title and become the first three-division champion in UFC history. That took a backseat to Ankalaev after their first fight, but now that Pereira is back on top, it makes sense for that to still be on his radar. Except he\u2019s not calling for a bout against the upcoming heavyweight title fight between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane. Instead, Pereira had his sights set on a different opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all due respect, with all the respect I have for the situation \u2026 I was going to ask for Jon Jones at the White House, but with everything that happened, it\u2019s not the right time to talk about it,\u201d Pereira said.<\/p>\n
Jones retired earlier this year after deciding not to unify his heavyweight belt with Aspinall; however, once the UFC White House card was announced, Jones ended his brief retirement and began lobbying for a spot on that card.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want a superfight. It would be at the White House against Jon Jones. That\u2019s a superfight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether or not that\u2019s possible is an open question. UFC CEO Dana White has repeatedly declared he cannot trust Jon Jones enough to book him at the UFC White House card, and on top of that, he seems less than excited about Pereira pursuing his heavyweight ambitions now that he\u2019s reclaimed the light heavyweight title. But \u201cPoatan\u201d suggests the latter won\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s needed,\u201d Pereira said about giving up the title. \u201cEveryone knows how often I fight, so that\u2019s not going to be an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps not, but the UFC has been increasingly less interested in champions moving weight classes and holding on to titles. So if the UFC makes Pereira defend his light heavyweight belt next, he\u2019s open to it, and unconcerned about whoever he faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best,\u201d Pereira said when asked who he wants next. \u201cWhoever is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Pereira has big plans after UFC 320. On Saturday night, Pereira reclaimed the light heavyweight title, knocking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-191285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}