Alex Pereira reveals he’ll only move to heavyweight for Jon Jones superfight
UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has said he’s more interested in a heavyweight showdown with Jon Jones as opposed to Tom Aspinall.
As we know, Tom Aspinall is the interim heavyweight champ. Jon Jones, meanwhile, is the undisputed king – but it’s been a while since we’ve seen him compete.
There has been a great deal of talk about Alex Pereira, the two-weight world champion, moving up to heavyweight in the future.
However, in a recent interview, he made it clear that he wouldn’t go up for anything less than an undisputed title shot – not an interim.
Pereira’s heavyweight future
“It doesn’t interest me to fight [Aspinall] at the moment,” said Pereira during a recent submission to his YouTube channel. “To be honest, heavyweight isn’t my goal, it isn’t my main focus. Tom Aspinall, not talking him as a fighter, I’m talking positions. I think I’m in another position now. It doesn’t make sense for me to fight for the interim belt, honestly.”
“I am not taking anything away from [Aspinall], I respect him a lot,” he continued. “I think he’s an incredible athlete, a guy that is very dangerous technically. I’m just talking about fighting for an interim belt. There’s no point for me. So I rule that out, there is no possibility to fight him now. If he was champion and he said that, of course we would be promoting that fight. I would force it more, but there is no point to fight for the interim belt right now.”
“Like I said, my focus is on my category,” Pereira explained. “I’m evolving a lot, doing very good. That is my focus, I’m doing a lot of good things in this division. I’m very happy with this. I’m not going to force anything. I think when I go to heavyweight, I have the weight and name today to fight back at middleweight — which I won’t be doing, but If I did go back to middleweight — I’d fight the belt. If I go to heavyweight, I would fight the belt. Like I said, I’m 37, so I have to go straight to the top, straight to the belt. If it’s Jon Jones, if it’s Aspinall, whoever, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m just eyeing the belt.”
Quotes via MMA Mania
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