Conor McGregor once famously said, “Options are a beautiful thing in the fight game, and boy do I have many.”
Quoting McGregor feels fitting in this moment as it was his injury and exit from the UFC 303 main event that opened the door for Alex Pereira to once again ride in to save the day, and now it’s “Poatan” that has myriad options to consider and weigh.
On Saturday night in Las Vegas, Pereira closed out the annual International Fight Week pay-per-view in devastating fashion, planting a perfect switch kick on the side of Jiri Prochazka’s head seconds into the second round to bring their second championship meeting in eight months to a close.
Not only did the victory further solidify the Brazilian’s place atop the division, but it further established the stoic, menacing figure as the biggest star in the sport at the moment.
In the last eight months, Pereira has:
• Rolled into Madison Square Garden on short notice and stopped Prochazka to claim the vacant light heavyweight title when UFC 295 was left lacking a main event after Jon Jones was forced to withdraw from his planned heavyweight title fight with Stipe Miocic. That was also Pereira winning UFC gold in a second weight class. He is a one-time middleweight champ.
• Stepped up to headline UFC 300 in April, dispatching Jamahal Hill in the first round to successfully defend his 205-pound title for the first time.
• Once again agreed to face Prochazka on short notice at UFC 303, dropping the former champ with a powerful left hook at the buzzer to end the first before sending him to the Shadow Realm as soon as the second round began.
Prior to his fight in April, we looked at how uncanny what Pereira had done to that point was in mixed martial arts, and since then, he’s added two more punishing stoppage wins over former UFC titleholders to his growing list of achievements inside the Octagon.
What he has done in eight fights is otherworldly and every time we think there is a ceiling to what the quiet punisher can do inside the cage, he marches out, lets loose an arrow, and does something else that makes the MMA audience audibly gasp in unison.
Another aspect to this is he’s consistently doing it against elite talents that have not otherwise been beaten in the manner in which he’s defeating them, save for Jan Blachowicz, who dragged him to the scorecards at UFC 291 in Salt Lake City and should be consulted by every one of Pereira’s future opponents for tips on how to survive an encounter in the cage with the most fearsome fighter on the planet at the moment.
So with another highlight reel finish in the books and a stated desire to remain active, what comes next for Pereira?
The man definitely has options.
Option 1: Magomed Ankalaev
Ankalaev is the obvious divisional option. He’s a well-rounded talent coming off a knockout win over Johnny Walker in January and brandishing a 12-fight unbeaten streak.
On paper, he presents some different wrinkles for Pereira to deal with as someone with excellent wrestling and grappling, and after getting his first opportunity to fight for UFC gold on short notice back at UFC 282, a full-camp chance to challenge for the title a second time would, in theory, offer a much better opportunity for the standout from Dagestan to wrest the title away from its current owner.
Option 2: Tom Aspinall
This one is contingent on the interim heavyweight champion earning a victory in his impending bout with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in Manchester towards the end of July, but should that happen, pairing the two men together would be a fascinating experiment.
Pereira would be the first person to challenge for championship gold in three weight classes and would be seeking to become the first to win gold in three weight classes, which is the kind of history-making opportunities you can’t pass up as a fighter or the promotion unless you have something else incredible in the works.
For Aspinall, it’s the biggest fight possible against an absolute killer, but one who, in theory, has weaknesses that someone like the standout British heavyweight could potentially exploit. As someone angling to show he’s the best heavyweight on the planet while Jones continues to wait on his bout with Stipe Miocic to come together, going out and beating Pereira would certainly ratchet up the pressure on “Bones” if he wants to continue laying claim to top spot in the division after just a single victory 15 months ago.
Option 3: Jon Jones
Jones was supposed to face Miocic last November before he torn his pectoral muscle and the fight was postponed. We’ve been told repeatedly that the matchup between the two is still the direction the UFC and Jones want to go, which has been reinforced by Aspinall getting booked against Blaydes.
But that Miocic fight gets less appealing with each passing month and now there is an extremely lucrative option where a potential path to victory for “Bones” is staring him in the face, and if you’re the UFC, you have to — at the very least — kick the tires on having this one headline Madison Square Garden in November or T-Mobile Arena in December, right?
The heavyweight picture will be a big topic in July, but for now, it only feels right to put this fight out there and take the temperature of the room.
Here’s What You Do: Book Pereira against Ankalaev in the main event of a pay-per-view slated to take place in the fall. It gets Ankalaev the championship opportunity he’s earned, puts a third Pereira appearance in the books in 2024, and, should he emerge victorious, keeps him flush with options heading into the final two months of the year, where we should get a bunch of clarity at the top of the heavyweight division.
An early October date hypothetically could mean that if he’s needed last minute for a November assignment at MSG or December in Vegas, he’s probably going to be available.
MATCHING UP OTHER UFC 303 WINNERS
Diego Lopes should be able to call his shot for the September Noche UFC pay-per-view headed to The Sphere in Las Vegas after everything he’s dealt with in the last couple weeks, and the promotion is likely to find something significant for him, with that date making a great deal of sense. A rematch with Movsar Evloev in a No. 1 contender bout as the middle fight on the main card would make a lot of sense given that his initial UFC 303 opponent, Brian Ortega, has indicated he intends to move up to lightweight.
The flexibility to fight in two divisions gives Roman Dolidze options as well. If he’s head back to middleweight, how about a rematch with Marvin Vettori? Or if he’s sticking around the 205-pound ranks for a minute, Volkan Oezdemir just got a punishing win last weekend in Saudi Arabia and would make for an interesting dance partner.
Ian Machado Garry remained undefeated with his win over Michael “Venom” Page in the main card opener, and said at his media availability following the bout that he’d like to be the one to hand Shavkat Rakhmonov his first loss. The two have trained together in the past and are both undefeated. Give them five rounds to work and take my money!
Whether you agree with the doctor stoppage or not, Macy Chiasson came away from UFC 303 with a second-round stoppage win over a recent title challenger at the top of her resume, giving her consecutive finishes this year after missing all of 2023 due to health issues. She mentioned facing Kayla Harrison when she spoke with Sportnet’s Aaron Bronsteter following her win and in terms of how the division lines up at the moment, it makes a great deal of sense.
Andre Fili got back into the win column with a hard-fought victory over fellow veteran Cub Swanson on Saturday. He’s a permanent fixture in the “Second 15” in the featherweight division, and the ideal test for someone like Sean Woodson whenever the St. Louis native gets healthy and is ready to return.
Joe Pyfer called out Paul Craig after his first-round knockout win over Marc-Andre Barriault and the Scotsman accepted on X later in the evening. Looks like Sean Shelby’s work has been done for him.
Jean Silva knocked out Canadian Charles Jourdain on Saturday’s prelims and should get another moderate step up in competition next time out. Nate Landwehr feels like the kind of guy that will meet him in the center of the Octagon (or at the bike racks) and knuckle up with the streaking Fighting Nerds representative.
Payton Talbott is the genuine article and while the callout of Adrian Yanez was nice, Yanez just got back into the win column last time out and may not want those problems. Miles Johns posted another win a couple weeks back, however, and might be interested in trying to stop Talbott’s rapid ascent up the bantamweight ranks.
Canadian Gillian Robertson registered the biggest win of her career on Saturday’s early prelims, dominating Michelle Waterson-Gomez to earn her second win of 2024 and fourth victory in her last five fights. It’s time for her to take the Angela Hill test.
Japanese prospect Rei Tsuyura remained unbeaten with a “tougher than anticipated” win over Carlos Hernandez. He just turned 22 and can be brought along slowly, so a matchup against someone else in the early days of their UFC career like Ronaldo Rodriguez would make a great deal of sense.
Vinicius Oliveira out-hustled Ricky Simon in the UFC 303 opener, collecting his second win of 2024 and putting himself in the “Second 15” in the bantamweight ranks. Give him a shot to crack the rankings by pairing him off with Jonathan Martinez next time out and see what happens.