April 13, (THEWILL)- Alex Pereira, the recently dethroned UFC middleweight champion, has announced that he will be moving up in weight to light heavyweight.
In a YouTube video posted on Wednesday evening, Pereira explained that he feels it is “something natural” to move up and that he’s excited for the change. Despite weighing as heavy as 232 pounds months out from past fight camps, Pereira does not want the perception to be that he is unable to still compete in the division he won a world title in.
Pereira was undefeated under the UFC banner, but lost a rematch to Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title this past Saturday at UFC 287 in Miami. Following a phenomenal kickboxing career that saw him compete at both 185 and 205 pounds, the 35-year-old Pereira committed fully to MMA in 2020.
The move up in weight would have been imminent down the line, had Pereira retained his title against Adesanya at UFC 287. Unfortunately for Pereira, his combat sports nemesis picked up his first victory in their four-fight series via a second-round knockout.
Although Pereira does not have a date nor an opponent for his return to light heavyweight, he could have run things back once more with Adesanya, but ultimately feels light heavyweight is the next best step at the moment. He also dismissed any suggestion that he is unable to make the middleweight limit again, saying “I’m not going up because I can’t make the weight anymore. I can make the weight at any moment.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
