At least for now, Dana White is done entertaining the idea of Alex Pereira to heavyweight.
The UFC CEO delivered a vehement “no” when asked Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show whether Pereira will get his chance to challenge UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Pereira, 37, is the current UFC light heavyweight champion and former middleweight champion. Also a former two-division champion in GLORY Kickboxing, Pereira has twice stepped in on short notice to save the UFC in 2024, headlining UFC 300 in April with a first-round knockout of Jamahal Hill and then headlining UFC 303 in June with a second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka.
Following the Prochazka knockout, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan led a voracious charge to allow Pereira to move up to heavyweight and attempt to become the first three-division champion in UFC history. Both Pereira and Jones have expressed an openness to the matchup, and Pereira’s longtime coach Plinio Cruz recently endorsed the idea to MMA Fighting, calling Jones vs. Pereira “the biggest fight this sport has ever seen.”
“I think it’d be a mega-fight. I think [it’d be] the biggest fight this sport has ever seen,” Cruz said in July. “We all respect Jon Jones a lot. And I think it’s going to be just a great fight. I’m not going to say [who] wins, they lose, [who] wins, they lose. Fight is a fight, but I think it’s going to be the best fight between two great champions.”
“I like the idea. I think that’s a [move] that’s going to happen eventually,” Cruz added. “I don’t think right now it’s the move, because let’s just be honest, the heavyweight division is clogged, it’s stopped right now. First Jones has to fight, first [Tom] Aspinall has to fight, so for us to be chasing something that’s not even moving yet, I don’t think is the point.”
Jones, 37, is the current UFC heavyweight champion and widely considered the greatest light heavyweight to ever compete. Jones is expected to face Stipe Miocic in a long-awaited matchup — most likely in November at New York’s Madison Square Garden — after spending most of 2024 rehabilitating from a shoulder injury that derailed the bout in 2023. Jones has not competed since defeating Ciryl Gane to claim the vacant title in March 2023, which marked Jones’ first and only bout at heavyweight in his 15-year MMA career.
White has been an ardent supporter of both the Jones vs. Miocic matchup and Jones’ claim to being the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, and that continued on Tuesday.
“Well, everybody on the internet is stupid,” White said when asked about criticism of his positions. “Anybody who thinks Jon Jones isn’t the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world should never be discussing fighting ever. Period, end of story.”
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