Dana White doesn’t think similarly about every
UFC champion planning to move up a weight class.
Light heavyweight champion Alex
Pereira reclaimed his title by knocking out Magomed
Ankalaev at UFC 320
last year, avenging a previous loss. Pereira is now eyeing a move
up to heavyweight. White says “Poatan” has always stepped up for
the UFC and deserves to do whatever he wants. White assures that
the promotion will work with the Brazilian on whatever his next
plan is.
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“He’s one of those guys who always steps up and does whatever we
need him to do,” White said at the UFC Houston post-fight press
conference. “Whatever that guy wants to do, we’ll work with
him.”
The Need to Defend
However, White doesn’t think the same about middleweight champion
Khamzat
Chimaev. Chimaev won the middleweight title via a dominant
unanimous decision against Dricus Du
Plessis at
UFC 319 last year. “Borz” is now eyeing a move up to light
heavyweight to challenge Pereira. However, White would rather see
the undefeated Chechen-born defend his middleweight title
first.
“I’d like to see him defend his title first at that weight,” White
said. “I’d like to see him defend his title before he talks about
jumping around. You’re gonna keep up in weight divisions without
defending? I’d rather see him defend.”
Pereira (13-3) made his UFC debut in 2021 and won the middleweight
title by defeating Israel
Adesanya the next year. Pereira moved up to light heavyweight
after losing his title to Adesanya in the immediate rematch.
Pereira won the vacant light heavyweight title against Jiri
Prochazka in 2023 and defended it thrice within a year before
losing to Ankalaev. The Brazilian is arguably the UFC’s biggest
star, especially after reclaiming his title against
Ankalaev.
Meanwhile, despite looking promising early on, Chimaev’s (15-0) UFC
career has been plagued by injuries and weight cut struggles. After
missing weight by a whopping 7.5 pounds that led to the reshuffling
of the entire UFC 279 main card in 2022, Chimaev finally moved up
to middleweight for good. “Borz” finally became a UFC champion last
year, five years after his UFC debut in 2020.