Joe Rogan is no stranger to seeing greatness in the Octagon, but Alex Pereira has truly impressed him. Since joining the UFC in 2021, Pereira has racked up accomplishments that some fighters spend a lifetime chasing, including championship belts in two divisions and successful title defenses. This has made Rogan claim ‘Poatan’ is already amongst the GOATs of the sport with just 10 UFC fights.
Not in the habit of mincing words, Rogan spoke about how crazy it was that the Brazilian maverick had managed to do all this in such a small amount of time.
“This is where it gets crazy, if you just look on record of accomplishments against champions, you kinda have to put Alex Pereria already in the conversation for potential greatest of all time. He is one of only three two division champions. He achieved in record time, he has knocked out so many champions.”
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Pereira joined the UFC as a two-division champion in kickboxing. And it was such a fluke of an occurrence as well. The then middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, in a response to a viral video of Pereia KOing him in a kickboxing match joked that the Brazilian would be sitting at some bar, looking at the TV and talking about how he had once defeated him.
But that one statement changed the trajectory of the UFC as we know it today.
‘Poatan’ quickly won over UFC fans with his stoic personality and jaw-dropping knockouts. In a short span of a year, he won the UFC middleweight belt knocking out Adesanya. He then defended it against Sean Strickland, only to find Izzy waiting for a rematch at the other end.
However, after a loss in the rematch, Pereira moved up a weight class to capture gold in the light heavyweight division. Ever since securing the 205-pound belt at UFC 295, Pereira has defended it thrice, and two of them were on short notice, so in effect that were two big PPV events he saved for the company.
Rogan is not the only one singing his praises either. After seemingly giving up on the idea of moving to heavyweight for the time being, Pereira has seemingly been dragged into the champ-champ-champ discussion by UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Why Jones wants Pereira
If Jon Jones decides to stick around after his UFC 309 matchup against Stipe Miocic, he should be fighting the interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall. But ‘Bones’ has his eyes on Pereira.
“I’m here for legacy, not just any fight,” Jones shared. For him, a clash with ‘Poatan’, who’s also 37 and has achieved dual titles with wins over five former champions, would mean more than facing younger contenders.
Jones has seen promising fighters rise and fall over his 16-year career, and he’s focused on cementing his legacy with matchups that will be remembered for decades.
Besides, stylistically Pereira might be an easier fight for Jones. Despite his knockout prowess, the Brazilian hasn’t yet been tested on the ground. He has gracefully managed to sidestep Magomed Ankalaev and hence, his strength or weakness against good wrestlers remains a wild card at best.
Jones, on the other hand, has fought fighters of all styles and won almost every single one of them in a career of nearly 16 years. He will not stand and trade with Pereira as the Brazilian’s opponents have done so far. So if the fight does come to pass, Pereira will not just have to put on a few pounds and still be spry, he will have to work on his ground game like a maniac, which at 37 does seem like a tall task.
