Alex Pereira Has the Potential to Become a Three Division Champion (2024)

By twsnteam | July 5, 2024 8:30 am ET

Remember when Conor McGregor, a rookie Conor McGregor, promised us all that he would become a double champion? It was not something completely unheard of, as BJ Penn and Randy Couture had captured world titles in two different divisions but that was a long time ago and the sport was nowhere near as cutthroat and complicated as it is today. Still, McGregor was adamant that he would prove doubters wrong and at UFC 205, the promotion’s debut event at Madison Square One, the Irishman annihilated Eddie Avlarez to become the first double champion since BJ Penn in 2008.

That broadened the ceiling of success in the UFC and the next day, the race began. Current divisional champions were contemplating following in McGregor’s footsteps. Top contenders were planning two titles before they even captured one. Dana White was consistently turning them all down but I’d like to bring your attention to something Darren Till said during an interview on the MMA hour.

“Getting the two? That’s already been done,” Till said to Ariel Helwani. “For me now that’s already done. So now I NEED the three.”

This comment drew laughter for a bunch of different reasons. Till had yet to win one belt and here he was fantasising about three but the mere idea itself was just ridiculous. By that point, a handful of UFC fighters had followed in McGregor’s footsteps and captured two titles but was a triple-division champion even possible? In order to become a double-champ, you had to either clear out your division to be considered for the division OR you had to be really good friends with Dana White, sometimes even both. To become a triple champion, you had to clean out TWO divisions and you had to be Dana White’s best friend.

A triple champion in the UFC was a fantasy. Henry Cejudo, a former champion at 125 and 135 was the only viable contender but when he was facing Sterling and talking about going up to 145, the featherweight champion at that time was Alexander Volkanovski, a prime Alexander Volkanovski and good luck beating that guy. As we all know, Cejudo was not able to beat Sterling so beating Volkanovski was pretty much a fantasy.

Now, however, we have a new contender and with this guy might actually be able to pull it off. Alex Pereira is the current light heavyweight champion and held the middleweight title prior. Upon his debut in the UFC, Pereira was seen as nothing more than an obstacle for Israel Adesanya to overcome. As the betting underdog headed into his UFC 281 title-fight against Adesanya, Pereira was expected to lose and consequently fade away but he wound up winning, becoming middleweight champion in a little over a year.

Since then, Alex Pereira has become one of the biggest stars in the sport and according to some, the face of the UFC. I’m inclined to believe them because ever since his loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287, Pereira has headlined (and saved) some of the important UFC events in recent memory. The latest example was UFC 303, an International Fight Week card to be headlined by the returning Conor McGregor but a broken toe sidelined the biggest star in the sport and guess who stepped up while nursing a broken toe himself? Alex Pereira.

The flawless performance against Jiri Prochazka, someone who gave him trouble in the first fight, was a sign that despite being 36 years old age with a lot of combat sport mileage on him, Alex Pereira is definitely improving as Prochazka was not able to establish any sort of momentum and was basically knocked out twice in a single fight. The event reportedly did massive numbers and the defining moment of the entire night was this freak of nature; Alex Pereira and his stardom most definitely exploded even further.

Unlike Henry Cejudo, who was fighting a losing battle given his relative lack of popularity, Pereira has the numbers backing him up. He is at that point that we can safely label him a money fight, not Conor McGregor-level of money fight but the interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, recently expressed interest in fighting him. His counterpart, the undisputed heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, has been advocating for a match with Poatan for many months now, citing his popularity and momentum as the reasons.

If Alex Pereira is granted a chance to compete for the baddest man on the planet belt, you can bet it will be advertised and hyped up as one of the most important events in UFC history. The UFC can easily be swayed to book this match-up as the event will generate massive numbers and given his performance at UFC 303, you cannot count the light heavyweight champion out, not against Aspinall or even Jon Jones.

That left-hand of his can silence anyone if it lands clean and Pereira is extremely proficient at setting up traps and luring his opponents into punches. The aura he has built up over the past few years is rarely manifested in MMA, with guys like Anderson Silva and Jon Jones being one of the few fighters to possess this level of fear and mystique. While Pereira is not quite on the level of the aforementioned GOATS, he is scary and talented enough that fans will pay to see him fight and fighters will always be one left hook away from unconsciousness. And that includes the baddest man on the planet.

Alex Pereira, Combat Sports, Conor McGregor, featured, Jiri Prochazka, Jon Jones, mma, new, Tom Aspinall, ufc, UFC 303, Headlines, UFC/Boxing