{"id":348254,"date":"2025-12-16T05:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/348254\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T05:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:28:13","slug":"alex-pereira-casts-doubt-on-returning-for-ufc-white-house-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/348254\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Pereira casts doubt on returning for UFC White House card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Alex Pereira doesn\u2019t seem to believe he\u2019s going to get a coveted spot on the upcoming UFC White House card in June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While UFC CEO Dana White has repeatedly stated that matchmaking for the historic event won\u2019t happen until at least February, the reigning light heavyweight champion is seemingly convinced he\u2019s not fighting there. On Monday, Pereira dropped a message on Instagram alongside a photo with White that casts doubt on his inclusion for the event currently scheduled on June 14 from the front lawn of the White House.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cLooks like the White House is a NO GO!!!\u201d Pereira wrote with no further explanation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Pereira has been pushing for a showdown against Jon Jones at the UFC White House card, which is being coordinated as part of President Donald Trump\u2019s plans to celebrate America\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jones, who briefly retired after passing on a fight against Tom Aspinall, announced his plans to fight again with hopes that he would lands a spot on the White House card. He\u2019s continued to talk about his interest in fighting Pereira at the White House, although his requests have largely fallen on deaf ears.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While UFC matchmakers aren\u2019t expected to start booking the card any time soon, White has stated that he doesn\u2019t have a lot of trust in booking Jones for such an important event, especially given his past history with issues inside and outside the cage that have prevented him from competing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As for Pereira, his exclusion could point towards a potential title fight being booked prior to the UFC White House card in June. The Brazilian reclaimed the 205-pound title with a blistering finish over Magomed Ankalaev in October after falling to the Russian seven months earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Rumors swirled for weeks that Pereira could possibly get booked against Carlos Ulberg sometime in early 2026 after the New Zealand born contender picked up his ninth consecutive win in a row with names like Dominick Reyes, Jan Blachowicz and Volkan Oezdemir on his resume.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That fight being booked could explain why Pereira doesn\u2019t believe he\u2019s going to be competing at the White House in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Pereira doesn\u2019t seem to believe he\u2019s going to get a coveted spot on the upcoming UFC White&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-348254","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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348254","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=348254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}