Alex Pereira isn’t going to box. The former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight champion said the long-term contract he signed with the promotion earlier this year leaves no room for a crossover run, calling the idea “kind of impossible” in a fight week interview with Fred Talks Fighting.
The answer came through his coach, Plinio Cruz, who was relaying for him. “Well, with seven fights left in his UFC contract at 39, it’s kind of impossible,” Pereira said. “But, he’s happy to be here with me [Cruz].” Bloody Elbow first reported the comments.
That’s a hard turn from where Pereira stood a year ago. He told the Connect Cast back then that he was “definitely going to box,” explaining that he liked the challenge of testing himself under a different ruleset. Seven UFC fights at his age is a career’s worth of dates, and he did the math out loud.
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The heavyweight problem
The boxing talk lands at an awkward moment for Poatan. He gave up the light heavyweight belt to move to heavyweight, then lost at the White House. That loss hasn’t pushed him off the plan, and he’s still headed for a second fight in the division later this year. Dana White also weighed in on Pereira’s heavyweight future recently, and there’s been chatter about where Pereira goes from here following UFC 335.
Bloody Elbow’s read is blunt: unless Pereira turns the heavyweight experiment around, it’s hard to picture him getting many more of the big-money crossover bouts that boxing was supposed to offer. Fair enough. Nobody hands a superfight to a guy coming off a loss at a weight where he’s still finding his feet.
Pereira didn’t sound bothered when he signed, either. Announcing the new contract, he said he had no issue vacating the 205-pound title and would do whatever the UFC wanted, because of how much they’re paying him. That’s about as honest a contract explanation as you’ll ever hear from a fighter, and it squares with what he’s saying now.
Role reversal in London
The interview happened on a fight week where Pereira is the one carrying the bucket. Cruz is set to make his Misfits debut this weekend in London, a long-awaited return to competition for the former fighter, and Pereira will be in his corner. So the closest Poatan gets to a boxing-adjacent ring this year is as a cornerman for the guy who usually corners him.
In a year when Jake Paul is publicly circling Tom Aspinall and Francis Ngannou on a 15-fight hit list, Pereira’s crossover would have been an easy sell. He’s choosing the paycheck he already has over the one he talked about.
My take: I’ll take a straight answer over a teased emoji any day, and pointing to seven fights left on the deal at age 39 is about as straight as it gets. Pereira traded the belt and the boxing dream for a guaranteed UFC payday, then lost his first test at heavyweight. The boxing door didn’t close this week. He locked it when he signed. Now the only thing that matters is whether he wins that second heavyweight fight later this year, because a 39-year-old with seven fights left can’t afford to spend many of them losing.
