Written by Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
If UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira beats Magomed Ankalaev on Saturday, many believe he’ll make the move out of the 205-pound division up to heavyweight but could he be eyeing a move back down to middleweight instead?
Pereira defends his title against Ankalaev in the main event of UFC 313 this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. UFC lead play-by-play commentator Jon Anik has watched Pereira’s incredible rise to winning titles in two different divisions, and when asked if this could be the final light heavyweight appearance for “Poatan,” Anik says a move out of light heavyweight doesn’t necessarily guarantee jumping up a division.
“I think it depends upon how the fight goes,” Anik told MMA Fighting. “If Magomed Ankalaev beats Alex Pereira to 50-45, and dominates him over 25 minutes, that wouldn’t lay the foundation for a rematch as much as, say, a quick Ankalaev knockout, because ‘Poatan’ has established so much goodwill with the fan base, with the promotion, and you parlay that with the fact that there aren’t a lot of obvious light heavyweight contenders right now — you got Jamahal Hill fighting Khalil Rountree, right? But are you gonna do Ankalaev versus Bogdan Guskov right now. I’m not sure you’re going to do that.
“The one thing that I will say, Alex Pereira can still make middleweight, and he wants to fight Dricus du Plessis. He did not defend the UFC middleweight championship. Of all the accolades for the future UFC Hall of Famer Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira, he never defended the middleweight championship, and if you think for a second that he doesn’t have an appetite, no pun intended, to go back down to 185 [pound], you’re absolutely crazy. And if the calendar doesn’t align for him to challenge Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall in the heavyweight division, I don’t think he’s going stick around at 205 to fight Bogdan Guskov, even though you and I f*cking love the guy. He’s probably going try to go down to 185 and fight Dricus du Plessis.
“Now, Khamzat Chimaev is going to have a say in all of that, but I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that it’s middleweight, right? Because he is that disciplined, and even this week, when he was asked about it, the first name on the tip of his tongue is not Jon Jones, it’s Dricus du Plessis.”
Coming off of an incredible 2024 where Pereira went 3-0 with three vicious knockouts, former UFC fighters such as Daniel Cormier and Matt Brown had questions about the champion’s discipline, or if he’s been too distracted with other out-of-the-octagon activities leading into — what many believe — is Pereira’s toughest test to date in Ankalaev.
Anik doesn’t quite see things the same way, because when it comes to Saturday, the problems potentially lie with the opponent standing in front of Pereira.
“Yeah, it’s a great question, but I just don’t see that vulnerability,” Anik said. “I really think it’s much ado about nothing. This is one of the hardest workers in the game, and anyone who watched Embedded or the UFC Countdown show, you see the true connective tissue he has with all of these men in the great state of Connecticut. There is an undeniable bond between these individuals, and whether he’s in Sydney, Australia making $1 million doing appearances 3 weeks before the fight, or training in the snow in Danbury, Conn., this man is putting in the work.
“I think the bigger issue might just be the opponent, that he’s just fighting a guy that has the skills to extend him and potentially beat him. But I don’t worry about Plinio Cruz and Glover Teixeira and that team getting him ready. I think the only window of vulnerability, for lack of a better way to put it, is just that he might be fighting the best guy he’s fought in this light heavyweight division.”