UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has one of the most impressive UFC runs ever, seemingly shifting through the weight classes with ease and staking his claim, wherever he competes.
Poatan won the UFC middleweight championship in his fourth Octagon assignment. He then became the 9th fighter to win two different UFC titles and the first to win both the middleweight and light heavyweight championships.
Not only that, Pereira won two weight classes faster than anyone in history, doing so in his 7th bout. He also accomplished the feat in just 736 days which is nearly twice as fast as the previous record holder – Conor McGregor who did it in 1,317 days after his UFC debut.
Looking back Pereira went from becoming the UFC’s 185-pound champion to its 205-pound king in two fights. After losing the middleweight to rival Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 on 8 April 2023, Pereira returned to the Octagon on 29 July of the same year to defeat former champion Jan Blachowicz in his light heavyweight debut. He won the belt in his next fight, knocking out Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 on 11 November 2023.
Alex Pereira Weight Cut
Dring his first bout with Adesanya at UFC 281, Pereira didn’t show up to the weighing room until around the deadline, which raised concerns that he was making a late cut. But he dismissed those stories by tipping the scales at 184.6 pounds.
Alex Pereira Weight Gain
In their second bout, Pereira weighed in at exactly 185 pounds. But according to reports, Pereira blew up to 210 pounds during fight night, meaning he gained 25 pounds overnight. Adesanya knocked out Pereira in that bout and Poatan decided to move up in weight after the defeat.
“My next fight will be at 205 [pounds],” Pereira said. “I think I did my work at 185 [pounds] and now I’m feeling good to go up to 205. Like I told you, when I’m feeling good, I will go up. This will be something natural and now I think it is. I want to make one thing clear: The division 185, I always made weight. A lot of people had doubts, but I always fulfilled my obligation.”
Alex then booked a fight with the former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz. Pereira tipped the scales at 205.5 pounds when he fought Blachowicz. But Poatan gained 22.5 pounds after rehydrating.
In his last bout against Prochazka, Pereira’s official weight was 204 pounds. He was outweighed by Jiri who was listed at 204.2 pounds. But we all know what happened in that bout. During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani at MMAHour, Poatan revealed how fast he gains weight after tipping the scales:
“103 kilograms, so I would say maybe 225, 224 [pounds], something like that… During the fights at 185 [pounds], I probably went in the cage at about 210 [pounds].”
Alex Pereira is one of the biggest anomalies in UFC history. He was such a huge man for the middleweight division and It’s incredible how he never missed weight at that weight class.