Is Alex Pereira really moving to heavyweight?
That’s the question on everyone’s lips since Pereira defended his UFC light heavyweight title with a brutal second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka in UFC 303’s short-notice main event. Pereira is already one of nine fighters in history to win belts in two different UFC divisions, having also captured the middleweight title in 2022, and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan made heavyweight the central focus of his post-fight conversation with Pereira.
No fighter has ever captured titles across three UFC divisions. But if anyone can do it, Pereira’s longtime coach Plinio Cruz is confident “Poatan” is the man for the job.
“I like the idea. I think that’s a [move] that’s going to happen eventually,” Cruz said on The MMA Hour. “I don’t think right now it’s the move, because let’s just be honest, the heavyweight division is clogged, it’s stopped right now. First [Jon] Jones has to fight, first [Tom] Aspinall has to fight, so for us to be chasing something that’s not even moving yet, I don’t think is the point.
“[Pereira] did show the interest that he wants to fight at heavyweight before. We didn’t get a response back from the UFC about that. So right now, we’re going to just focus on keep defending that belt over and over again until the [heavyweight] division is moving and we have something there for us.”
“People talk about warm-up fights — I do not want him to have a warm-up fight,” Cruz added. “If we’re going to go up, it’s going to be to be a champ. I think that’ll be the way. But it’s his decision at the end of the night. But my opinion, as a coach, I think you we defend this belt a few more times — and whenever that is ready, that his body is ready to go up there, we go and see what we can get.”
Pereira, 36, has repeatedly expressed a willingness to test himself at heavyweight since capturing the light heavyweight belt with a win over Prochazka in November.
UFC CEO Dana White has thus far resisted the idea and did so again at Saturday’s post-fight press conference, pointing to the fact that Pereira has only notched two title defenses at 205 pounds. Cruz’s point about the current UFC heavyweight division is also valid — champion Jon Jones is tied up with a legacy fight against Stipe Miocic likely for November, while interim champ Tom Aspinall is set to face Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July.
Still, both Jones and Pereira have flirted with one another in the media over a blockbuster matchup in the past, and Cruz is confident their showdown of star power could be historic.
“I think it’d be a mega-fight. I think [it’d be] the biggest fight this sport has ever seen,” Cruz said. “We all respect Jon Jones a lot. And I think it’s going to be just a great fight. I’m not going to say [who] wins, they lose, [who] wins, they lose. Fight is a fight, but I think it’s going to be the best fight between two great champions.”
In addition to being a two-division UFC champion, Pereira is also a former two-division champion in GLORY Kickboxing. In the past three months alone, he headlined both UFC 300 and UFC 303 on short notice, adding knockouts of Jamahal Hill and Prochazka to a hit list that already includes Jan Blachowicz, Israel Adesanya, and Sean Strickland.
Jones, 36, is also a two-division UFC champion, having held the light heavyweight belt from 2011-15 and again from 2018-20, before capturing the heavyweight title with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane in March 2023. In May, he predicted a champ vs. champ fight against Pereira would be “absolutely massive” and downplayed Aspinall’s ability to draw for a unification bout. He also called the Pereira matchup “the biggest fight in MMA history.”
Cruz said Pereira showed up to UFC 303 fight night weighing around 234 pounds. If the heavyweight move does happen, he’ll caution Pereira against gaining too much weight.
“I want him to weigh as much as he can without losing his ability of agility and speed,” Cruz said. “Because sometimes [fighters] go to heavyweight but they bulk too much and they lose their main characteristics. I want him to be agile, I want him to be a tiger. You know what I mean? I want him to be sharp. So I think he can go up probably like, maybe another 10, 20 pounds, 240ish.”
For now, though, heavyweight will likely have to wait.
Cruz said he expects Pereira to fight once more in 2024, potentially in the fourth quarter of 2024, and most likely in the champ’s third defense of his light heavyweight title.
“Since November, he fought three times already, so that’s [hard] on the body,” Cruz said. “I said, ‘Bro, just enjoy being a world champion for a little bit. Let’s not rush. Let’s train, let’s keep training, and whenever the UFC makes the call, we’ll just see what they want us to do.’
“The next few months, they’re going to come out with something. We believe that they’re going to make the best choice and put whatever [options] we have to see that is on the table. But honestly, this guy’s crazy. I think maybe that’s why he even trained [Monday] morning. He came out of the fight, he looked at me and the guys and said, ‘Listen, this was my second sparring of the camp for Perth [at UFC 305]. I want to fight on that card.’ I swear to God. I said, ‘No, no, no. Let’s just pump the brakes a little bit.’”
