Alex Pereira announces he will return to middleweight after Dricus Du Plessis defends the title at UFC 305

Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has announced that he will return to middleweight following tonight’s UFC 305 main event.

UFC 305 was headlined by a middleweight title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya.

The highly anticipated grudge match proved to be a thrilling back and forth affair. Round one was super close, but Dricus Du Plessis came out and got the better of Izzy in the second frame. Israel Adesanya turned the tide in his favor in round three and seemed to have ‘DDP’ tired and in trouble in the early stages of Round 4. However, DDP landed a big shot and was able to drop the former champion and promptly jumped on him and sunk in a fight-ending rear-naked choke (see that here).

Immediately following the conclusion of tonight’s ‘Du Plessis vs. Adesanya’ matchup, Alex Pereira took to Instagram to announce that he plans on returning to 185lbs after his UFC 307 title fight with Khalil Rountree Jr.

https://twitter.com/espnmma/status/1825038714944254344

“Coming down to 185 one more time!”

Alex Pereira has not competed at middleweight since suffering a brutal knockout loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287. Since then, ‘Poatan’ has scored four straight wins at light heavyweight, including capturing the title over Jiri Prochazka and then defending the belt on two occasions against Jamahal Hill and the Czech Samurai.

Given the current landscape of both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, it would appear that Pereira could fight for the 185lbs title in the first quarter of 2025.

UFC CEO Dana White has already announced that Sean Strickland will be the next man to challenge Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight strap. With that said, if Alex Pereira can defeat Khalil Rountree at UFC 307, the promotion would likely have no issue with ‘Poatan’ returning to middleweight in an attempt to reclaim that title.

How do you think a fight between Alex Pereira and Dricus Du Plessis would play out?