Former UFC Champ Alex Pereira Going to Heavyweight to Fight Ciryl Gane, Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall. Makes too much sense.
Look, Alex Pereira vacating the belt is the smartest move he’s ever made, even if it leaves the light heavyweight division in a total scramble. He’s already cleared out the 205-lb shark tank with an 84.6% finish rate, so why stick around for rematches when he can chase a historic third belt?
Pereira is officially moving up to attempt the "trifecta"—becoming the first fighter in UFC history to hold belts in three weight classes. He’s already 10-2 in the UFC, and his 79-inch reach means he isn't exactly a small guy even among the heavyweights.
Instead of a third fight with Jiri Prochazka, he’s hunting Tom Aspinall (15-3) and Ciryl Gane (13-2). Aspinall lands a massive 7.63 significant strikes per minute, making that a "who blinks first" kind of shootout that fans would pay double to see.
Pereira has already put Jiri Prochazka away twice, including that legendary head-kick finish at UFC 303. There’s no juice left in a third fight when Jiri has a 32-5-1 record but zero answers for Poatan’s left hook.
Former LHW champs like Magomed Ankalaev are a headache for Pereira because they actually want to wrestle. In the heavyweight top tier, guys like Gane prefer to stand and trade—which plays right into Pereira’s 11 career MMA knockouts.
With the belt vacant, Jiri Prochazka and Carlos Ulberg are set to clash on June 13, 2026, to decide the next king. Prochazka enters as a slight favorite, but Ulberg is riding a terrifying win streak that has the entire division on notice.
This matchup features a combined 36 career knockouts between the two of them. It’s a literal coin flip for who leaves the cage with the gold, but neither of them is the "final boss" that Pereira is looking for anymore.
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