Alex Pereira has a backup plan, and he said it out loud. If Sergei Pavlovich beats him at heavyweight, Pereira says he’s going right back down to 205 pounds and expects to walk straight into a light heavyweight title fight.
The comments came from an interview with @connect_cast that Championship Rounds clipped on X. Pereira laid it out like a guy reading a scale.
“Everyone knows I’m not as heavy as those heavyweights. I’m not going to stay there taking a beating with that disadvantage,” he said.
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Then came the part that got everybody talking: “I’d go back to my division, where I was already well adapted. It would be [straight] for the [light heavyweight] belt.”
Sports Illustrated also picked up the update ahead of what it called Pereira’s heavyweight return.
Still Mad About Gane
In the same interview, Pereira went back to his fight with Ciryl Gane, which was stopped with Herb Dean as the referee. Pereira believes the result would have gone the other way with somebody else in there, and he made his case that Gane was the one in trouble.
“[Gane] wore himself out badly there and couldn’t knock me out. They stopped the fight and I was still standing. I wasn’t on the ground,” Pereira said.
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He added that Gane looked relieved when it was waved off, quoting him as saying, “I can’t believe it. Thank God it’s over,” and pointing to how hard the Frenchman was breathing.
So heading into Pavlovich, Pereira is carrying a grudge against a referee and a return ticket to 205 at the same time. That’s a lot of luggage for one trip.
Adesanya Doesn’t Like It
Israel Adesanya was not a fan of the public exit strategy. In a clip posted via @MightyMouse and shared by Happy Punch, Adesanya pushed back hard on Pereira talking about a loss before the fight even happens.
“I don’t like that. I don’t like putting that out there. F*ck you mean if you lose? Go back to ‘Chama,’ all this fugazi BS. Stick to Chama,” Adesanya said.
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The internet piled on too. Spinnin Backfist joked on X that Pereira’s fans have stopped defending him and now just stare back at you. And the camp footage didn’t help the vibes much: Championship Rounds posted video of Pereira eating some big shots from Glover Teixeira in sparring the same day the interview made the rounds.
My take: I like a fighter who answers the question straight, and Pereira did exactly that. Heavyweights are bigger than him, he knows it, and he isn’t pretending otherwise. Adesanya still has the better point, though. You don’t hand Pavlovich a quote about what you’ll do after he beats you, and you definitely don’t assume the UFC will gift you a title shot coming off a loss. Right now Pereira is the only person on record saying that shot is guaranteed. The plan only matters if Pavlovich lands first, and Pavlovich has spent his whole career landing first.
