Alex Pereira finally addressed the talks about him pursuing another title. According to the light heavyweight champ, while there is a possibility of a move to heavyweight in the future, it is not the priority right now.
Pereira’s coach, Glover Teixeira, recently voiced the possibility, saying his student could also excel in the heavyweight. The retired fighter praised “Poatan,” whom he described as a “disciplined professional” capable of efficiently handling weight adjustments.
“It’s all a process,” Teixeira said. “‘Poatan’ is a disciplined professional, and that’s why he managed to make 185 in the first place. It’s not easy for anyone to do what he did. Few people can manage that.
“I’m not saying few people can fight in the UFC, much less win the belt, but to do what he did, losing that much weight, not many can do. In the UFC, I’d say only 10 percent of the fighters can do that weight cut the way he did. It was very brutal, but ‘Poatan’ has the discipline for it.”
“If he were to move up, he would change his diet and training routine outside the camp to gain mass,” Teixeira said. “‘Poatan’ walks around 233 pounds and I think he can go to 246, but not [over that], you know? I think 242 would be good.”
When asked about it, however, Pereira denied that the move would be anytime soon. For the fighter, the timeline on when it will happen depends on what weight his body will benefit the most.
“It’s not my plan, actually, at the moment,” Pereira said through an interpreter in an interview in France. “I just went to a higher weight division, and I feel very good in it. I just won the belt, so it shows I did something right, so I’m at the moment a light heavyweight.
“I’m not a heavyweight, and if my body calls me one day because I’m 36 years old now, my training changed a little bit, like the last three years, my body changed a lot because of different training, not only kickboxing, as well a ground game, right? So my body changed. If my body will change more and my body will say, ‘Man, you can’t fight anymore at light heavyweight,’ OK, I will go up. But it’s not the plan at the moment.”
