Henry
Cejudo believes Alex
Pereira needs more heavyweight victories before challenging for
another
Ultimate Fighting Championship title.
Pereira is scheduled to face Sergei
Pavlovich at UFC
335 on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. However, he
believes he deserved a title rematch against Ciryl Gane, who will
instead defend his heavyweight championship against Josh Hokit
at UFC
334 on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
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Henry Cejudo wants Alex Pereira to win two or three heavyweight
fights before another UFC title shot
Cejudo believes Pereira (13-4) received preferential treatment in
reaching title contention in two divisions. “Triple C” pointed to
Pereira’s opportunity to fight Gane for the interim heavyweight
championship in his divisional debut at
UFC Freedom 250. He argues that Pereira must now build a
winning record at heavyweight before receiving another title
shot.
“It’s a part of him being spoiled too,” Cejudo said on the “Pound 4
Pound” podcast. “Alex, I’m not picking on you… You’ve skipped
lines; you’ve skipped lines long enough. You’ve had enough
opportunities against Ciryl Gane and you lost. Yeah, there were
illegal blows; I do agree with you on that. But man, that jab from
Ciryl Gane wobbled you. We kind of saw where the fight was going.
It was your debut at heavyweight… I feel like you need to win at
least two–three more fights to fight for the title.”
Cejudo is not the only former two-division champion to challenge
Pereira’s comments about the heavyweight title picture. “Poatan”
previously alleged that former fighter and commentator Daniel
Cormier promoted Gane vs. Hokit at the UFC’s direction. Cormier
denied the accusation.