Alex Pereira’s heavyweight future depends entirely on his performance at UFC 335 on Dec. 12, when he faces off with Sergei Pavlovich.
The former two division UFC champion said in an interview with Connect Cast that he will cut back down to 205 pounds if he loses the co-main event bout with Pavlovich, which goes down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I wouldn’t stay [at heavyweight, no,” Pereira said. “I would go back to light heavyweight. I think that would be the ideal thing to do.”
Pereira suffered a second-round knockout against Ciryl Gane in June in his heavyweight debut, failing to clinch the interim title at the historic UFC White House event.
“Poatan” decided to stick around despite not getting the immediate rematch he campaigned for, and would look at another loss in the division as a message that he’s in disadvantage against bigger competition.
“Everyone knows I’m not a big guy like these heavyweights,” Pereira said. “So I’m not going to stay there taking a beating at that disadvantage. So I would go back to my division, where I was more comfortable. I think that would be the best thing to do.”
Pereira believes that his return to light heavyweight would be straight in a title fight, but remains confident that won’t be necessary since he’s confident in a win against Pavlovich.
The Russian talent enters UFC 335 on a three-fight winning streak, including a recent 39-second knockout against Tallison Teixeira, who at the time was training with Pereira.
“I think against me, maybe he might think, ‘I’m going to unleash the machine gun and knock this guy out,’” Pereira said. “I don’t know what happens, but he might unleash the machine gun, and if he can’t land his shots, he might try to wrestle me to wear me out. But I’m getting ready, I’m excited about the training and everything I’ve been doing with the team.”
