Alex Pereira Feels the Heat as Dana White Ducks Major UFC Fight Reveal—Fans Go Wild

It was supposed to be an innocuous social media collaboration between the UFC and one of Europe’s biggest football teams. But much to Dana White’s dismay, the comments section has turned into a fan frenzy, as they refuse to let an ongoing saga continue without a solution.

Far from a stranger to social media promotion, the UFC sent two-division champion Alex Pereira out to Munich for a meet-and-greet event. Pictured on the promotion’s Instagram, Pereira posed with a Bayern Munich jersey adorned with the number 87 for his year of birth. 

Pereira was joined by Russian fighter Abus Magomedov for the promotional event. Abus, who is on a three-fight win streak, has lived in Germany since he was 15. The veteran cut his teeth on the German MMA scene, picking up a few titles prior to his time in the UFC.

Despite the popularity of the two fighters on show, fans on social media refused to be distracted by the post in the wake of an interesting development in the UFC’s biggest ongoing saga.

Rather than positive responses to the image of ‘Poatan’ with his Bayern Munich jersey held aloft, the comments section was inundated with calls for Jon Jones to be stripped of his UFC Heavyweight Championship.

At the time of writing, ’Strip Jon Jones’ dominated the near-200 comments on the post. The fan outcry comes after a surprisingly assertive move from Interim Champion Tom Aspinall.

Aspinall shares petition to strip Jones of heavyweight title

After months of requesting and then demanding the title unification fight, it seems that Tom Aspinall has run out of patience. The British fighter has been the Interim Heavyweight Champion since November 2023, when he defeated Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295.

Since then, Aspinall has been in pursuit of a title bout with Jones, who has only fought three times this decade. Frustrated UFC fans have moved in support of Aspinall, creating a petition calling for Jones to be stripped of his title.

Aspinall shared the link to the petition via his Instagram story yesterday. The petition has been signed by 160,000 people at the time of writing, underlining the UFC fans’ anger at the situation.

The British fighter shared the link via a video clip in his Instagram story. The clip features a man confronting Jones over the possibility of a fight. The aggressive man, who has Aspinall’s face photoshopped over his, questions Jones about the fight before the heavyweight champ runs away. An edited photo of ‘Bones’ with a duck’s bill is also featured in the story, referencing Jones’ constant ducking of the Aspinall fight.

Meanwhile, Jones and Dana White continue to dodge questions regarding the Aspinall-shaped elephant in the room. But as fan outrage mounts, it is not a strategy that’s going to work in the long term.

Aspinall last fought in July 2024, defending his interim title against Curtis Blaydes. He has beaten every fighter in the heavyweight top five except for Ciryl Gane, whom he has yet to face.