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A battle of champions may be coming our way one day between UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira.
Jones recently took to X to reveal that a potential fight with Pereira would be the biggest in MMA history:
If Alex P became champion of the heavyweight division, would you guys consider him the GOAT? Being back in the gym has got me thinking differently. That fight after stipe maybe the next biggest move I could possibly make. This killer has already defeated so many champions, and…
— BONY (@JonnyBones) May 3, 2024
It would be absolutely massive. A guy with a chance to be three division champion and a goat versus the actual goat. Same age, different strengths. No one can argue that that would be the biggest fight in MMA history. There’s absolutely no fight that generates a payday like that.… https://t.co/B4LGC209sV
— BONY (@JonnyBones) May 3, 2024
You actually think me fighting Tom would be more massive than Alex and I colliding? Tom only matters in the UK, newsflash. Pereira is one of the most polarizing figures this sport has seen. Toms a contender who won a belt against another contender. We had to save Madison Square… https://t.co/JatZed5UUO
— BONY (@JonnyBones) May 3, 2024
Pereira would responds to Jones’ tweets during a media day interview leading into UFC 301.
“Yeah, it caught me by surprise, especially after I saw the first message. I didn’t really expect to see that this morning. I know we’ve been doing a very good job. There’s all this hype around me right now. I spoke about going up to heavyweight to fight on this card. I knew it’d catch some eyes eventually. I didn’t expect it to be so fast. But I was very honored and it was a very respectful message, so it was fun.
“When I said I would like to move up to heavyweight, I was very excited about that,” Pereira said (transcript via Nolan King of MMA Junkie). “But the UFC didn’t seem to keen on that at the time. Once I saw there was no real interest from them on me going up, I spoke with my team, with my managers, and decided to focus on the weight class that I’m champion in, which is light heavyweight. I’m doing very good there. We kind of left heavyweight on the backseat until something changed. Now, I guess a lot of interest has been generated and we have to see what the promotion wants.
“… He is on the sidelines for a while and he wants to do another fight before that. So there is a lot of things to happen in the meantime and I just want to be active. I just want to fight. If the UFC wants to tell me, ‘Hey, this is the path for you to get that fight at heavyweight,’ so I can change my plans, that works. But if I don’t have anything, I prefer not to stray away from what we have decided. To be thinking about things and not have them come to fruition would be just draining for me and for the fans. That’s definitely a fight I would love to do. For me to move up to heavyweight, I need some time – but not that much time because I’m already a big guy. So if they give me the green light and say, ‘Hey, this fight is happening,’ I’m 100 percent getting ready for it.”
