“He Deserves”: Alex Pereira Ready to Share 2024 Fighter of the Year Honors with Ilia Topuria

Alex Pereira was awarded the 2024 Fighter of the Year for his three title defenses in the year. But a case can also be made for Ilia Topuria, considering the quality of his opponents. Topuria ran it down with legends like Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway and managed to send both of them to the shadow realm.

In light of this, Pereira has announced that he would be more than happy to share his prize with the featherweight champion. In a conversation with Ariel Helwani, Pereira said that fans were right to be rooting for the Spaniard since he seemed to bring a lot of joy to them and deserves the award as much as he did.

“I will share this [award] with him because he’s also done great things and he’s a great guy who brings a lot of joy to people, so he deserves the award too… We both are the best fighters of 2024.”

The Brazilian powerhouse is being generous. Few would complain about the fact that only Pereira won the award.

Two out of three of his fights had been against former world champions and were taken on short notice to save UFC PPVs. He’s convincingly knocked out all his opponents and has been a dominant champion, who’s almost run out of competition at 205 lbs.

If an argument were to be made against his ascension to the top, it would be his refusal to fight Magomed Anlalaev for a whole year of his title reign.

Pereira’s opponents, through sheer stroke of luck, were strikers who were either incapable or unwilling to go to the ground to test his grappling abilities. Topuria, on the other hand, not just defeated legends, he even challenged champions like Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev, who would be a stylistic nightmare for him inside the octagon.

But now, after a year of delay, Pereira’s fight with Ankalaev has been finally confirmed. Since the confirmation, Ankalaev has issued warning after warning, threat after threat, calling Pereira out for ducking and wasting his time.

Despite this, Pereira seems a little more concerned about the prospect of moving up in weight and going for the elusive third-division title.

Jones or Aspinall: Who does Pereira want?

While the UFC has seen its share of double champs and fighters competing across multiple divisions, no one has ever managed to win belts in three different weight classes. Pereira wants to change that. He has long been called out by the undisputed heavyweight champion Jon Jones. 

However, Jones might not be the one Pereira wants to fight. Earlier, he had claimed that he would be happy to entertain the Jones fight should he defend his title against interim champion Tom Aspinall.

“That is his next challenge. But I think if he gets past Tom Aspinall, it is going to be inevitable.”

He has now clarified that it’s not Jones he’s after, but the title.

“I’ll fight anybody at heavyweight. But I’m the champion, and Jon Jones is the champion. If Aspinall was the champion, I’d want to fight him.”

Interestingly, rumors of Jones being willing to drop his heavyweight title for a mega fight with Pereira, were put to rest.

“It’d be cool to fight over the heavyweight championship, but I would also willingly give up the heavyweight championship… I love the position that I’m in right now. Fighting Pereira for the BMF belt, that’d be cool.”

Will Jones accept? Will Aspinall accept the challenge should he be in the position? Only time will tell.

But first Pereira must prove he can win a fight with a grappling expert like Ankalaev. If he can’t, going up against the big boys at 240 lbs is going to be a complete nightmare.