Alex Pereira will be headlining UFC 300 and if all goes well for him, he wants to defend the UFC light heavyweight championship again three weeks later at UFC 301 in Brazil.
Alex Pereira wanted to defend the UFC light heavyweight championship against Jamahal Hill in front of his countrymen at UFC 301. But with the promotion unable to find a marquee fight to headline its UFC 300 event, UFC President Dana White decided to put Poatan on the main event of the tri-centennial event.
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Of course, Pereira could not say no. But because he doesn’t want to disappoint his Brazilian fans who were looking forward to watching him at the 301 show, the 205-pound king is now mulling over defending the belt too during the May 4, 2024 event.
“Since I was already talking to the UFC about UFC Brazil and it’s something that was already kind of agreed but didn’t happen, there’s this possibility,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel about fighting at UFC 301.
“The UFC likes to see me fighting. I think that would be a good idea if all goes right. If I win and I’m not injured, I would ask for that. But one step at a time. The focus now is to win and defend this belt.”
Hill was the man who held the belt before Pereira. The 32-year-old beat up Texeira’s good friend and training partner Glover Teixeira to win the UFC 205-pound title at UFC 283 in January 2023. He never defended the belt because he got hurt and was forced to relinquish it.
Poatan went on to win the vacant UFC light heavyweight championship with a sensational knockout of former champion Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 last November.
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With his win over Prochazka, Pereira became the first fighter in UFC history to win both the middleweight and light heavyweight championships.
Poatan also needed both the shortest time and fewest fights to become a two-division champion in the UFC. If he ends up fighting at UFC 301, then Pereira will also set the record for the shortest time between title defences at 21, obliterating the current record of 56 days set by Ronda Rousey.
But as Poatan said, first things first and he will have his hands full against a 100% healthy Hill. Sweet Dreams is 12-1 with seven of his wins coming by way of knockout. Roatan has been knocked out before too. He lost the UFC middleweight belt via knockout against his mortal enemy Israel Adesanya.