Alex Pereira has called time for now on his middleweight career and is moving up to the light heavyweight division.
Coming off a loss to Israel Adesanya “Poatan” announced to his YouTube fanbase that he would be moving up. Pereira was knocked out in the second round on Saturday night at UFC 287 in the highly anticipated middleweight championship rematch with Israel.
The former UFC Middleweight Champion told his fans “I think I did my work [at] 185 and now I’m feeling good to go up to 205. When I’m feeling good — this will be something natural … and now I think it is.”
The rivalry against Adesanya had spanned 4 fights across 2 promotions & disciplines with Pereira winning 3 (2 KOs & 1 DEC) and Israel picking up the win in the 4th fight by devastating knockout. There was talk in the lead-up to the previous fight of Alex moving up to 205 and now it’s official.
Alex Pereira Discusses the Fight & His Decision to Move Up
Pereira began “All of you saw the provocation from Adesanya after the fight. He acts as if he has won against me three times. But it’s not like this. But I understand or try to understand the happiness he has. It was his dream to win one time against me, and now he did,”.
“But I’m sure if I would stay in this division, I can fight against him directly. Let’s see how he behaves … I’m not going up because I can’t make the weight anymore. I will always be able to make 185. Let’s see the behaviour of him. He’s behaving like this because Dana White spoke after the fight about my weight.”
“And it seems like he is thinking like, ‘Oh this guy will never make weight again — I can [provoke] him, because he won’t do anything. I’m sure if I insist to fight him again immediately, the UFC and my promoters will make it happen.”
Who should Poatan fight first at Light Heavyweight? Would you want a potential super fight with Adesanya if he captured the title at 205? Let us know in the comments!
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
