Jon Jones has looked at Alex Pereira’s move to heavyweight and come away unsure. The former UFC heavyweight champion admitted uncertainty about Pereira’s chances against Sergei Pavlovich, according to reports Monday from Sportskeeda and NDTV Sports. NDTV billed it as an honest verdict on the matchup.
Neither report, in what’s available to us, carries Jones’s exact words, so we aren’t putting any in his mouth. The gist is doubt, and it comes from a guy who knows the heavyweight division from the inside.
That matters. Jones (28-1) took the heavyweight title from Ciryl Gane in 2023 and held it until he retired in 2025, after two runs as light heavyweight champion. His only loss is the disputed Matt Hamill disqualification. Our Cagefile data still lists him No. 1 at heavyweight, which tells you how long it takes a division to stop measuring itself against Jon Jones.
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Pereira (13-4) is a different kind of problem for big men. He’s a former two-time light heavyweight champion and former middleweight champion, held Glory kickboxing titles in two weight classes at the same time, and reportedly went 25-3 as an amateur boxer with every win by knockout. Our data has him No. 6 at heavyweight. The Meta UFC rankings had him No. 4 there as of Sept. 19, plus No. 3 at light heavyweight. His last fight was June 14.
He meets Pavlovich at UFC 335 on Dec. 12, on a card headlined by Oliveira vs. Lopes. Putting a heavyweight scrap like that on a December pay-per-view is the kind of matchmaking that earns someone a drink on fight week.
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Pereira hasn’t exactly been quiet in the meantime. On Oct. 9 he took a shot at UFC 334’s main event, Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit, writing: “Why the Women’s Fight is not the Main Event? Okay let me help promote this cause no one is paying attention to it.” A day later his coach, Plinio Cruz, won by TKO in Round 2 of his Misfits Boxing debut. And Bruce Buffer, speaking to Helen Yee, named Pereira, Jones and Conor McGregor as the only fighters who deserve the “The one the only” introduction.
Jones’s doubts don’t change the booking, and Jones isn’t the one who has to stand across from Pavlovich. Pereira does, on Dec. 12.
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