Alex Pereira is back in the gym, and he wants everybody to see it. The Brazilian posted new sparring footage on his own account Monday, and it spread fast across fight Twitter as he builds toward his scheduled appearance at UFC 335.
Championship Rounds shared the clip from @AlexPereiraUFC and called him sharp, which is about as close to a consensus as you get on X. Spinnin Backfist tied the footage directly to his UFC 335 bout. Neither account named an opponent, and nothing in the posts tells us who he’s fighting, so I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
The more interesting post came from Dovy, who put up a separate clip with a plain caption: Pereira working on his defense. That’s a different thing to highlight from a guy whose reputation was built on the other side of the exchange.
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How He Got Here
Pereira’s last big night didn’t go his way. He met Ciryl Gane in a massive fight at UFC White House with an interim heavyweight title on the line, and Gane won it. Gane was later elevated to undisputed champion with Tom Aspinall still sidelined after their fight ended with Aspinall’s eyes damaged, a sequence MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee called one of the more justified promotions in UFC history even while admitting it still feels weird.
Gane makes his first defense this Saturday against unbeaten Josh Hokit in the UFC 334 main event at Madison Square Garden. So the timing on Pereira’s footage is either a coincidence or a guy reminding the room he still exists. The UFC is helping either way. UFC Canada spent Monday asking fans for their reaction to Gane vs. Pereira while pushing the Saturday pay-per-view, which starts at 9 p.m. ET.
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The Pereira household has been busy in general. Over the weekend, his son Lohan won a grappling match in less than a minute, per Championship Rounds, with Dovy noting it ended in the first round. The kid’s finishing rate is currently perfect.
What’s Next
The UFC 335 assignment is the immediate business. The sources don’t give us a date, a division or a name across the cage for that one, and anybody filling in those blanks right now is guessing. What we do know is the heavyweight picture shifts this weekend no matter what, with Gane or Hokit walking out of the Garden with the belt and Aspinall expected back at some point in 2027.
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My take: Sparring clips are marketing, and I’ve watched enough guys look like killers on Instagram and then gas in Round 2. But the defense clip caught my eye. A fighter coming off a loss to Gane posting himself drilling defense instead of another one-punch highlight tells me his camp knows exactly what went wrong at the White House. Watch the Gane vs. Hokit result Saturday night, because Pereira will be.
