Alex Pereira will have the chance to become a two division champion this coming weekend, as he takes on the returning, Jiri Prochazka, for the vacant light heavyweight title at UFC 295.
Pereira made his UFC debut in New York back in 2021, where he beat Andreas Michailidis in the same arena, Madison Square Garden. He then went on to beat Israel Adesanya three fights later, in the same arena.
The 36-year-old Pereira made his much anticipated light heavyweight debut last time out, after losing his middleweight title to Israel Adesanya. In that first outing at 205lbs, he beat former title holder, Jan Blachowicz.
This will mark Jiri Prochazka’s first fight in over a year after he suffered what was originally said to be a catastrophic shoulder injury, with Dana White stating that it was the worst the UFC have ever seen. Prochazka’s last fight came against Pereira’s head coach, Glover Teixeira.
At the UFC 295 media day, Pereira spoke about the matchup with Prochazka and the significance of being able to compete for another title in a different weight class.
“He seems to fight a lot with a fight style that’s hard to understand at first but I’ve been training hard, I have my weapons and I’m going to show them in the fight,” Pereira said.
“It definitely means a lot to me, I did the same in kickboxing so now to try to get this here, this means a lot not just for me but means a lot to be able to motivate my people to see they can believe that it happens and also to motivate the ones that don’t believe and don’t believe it’s possible.”
The former middleweight champion made it clear that he isn’t focussed on this fight to avenge his friend, Teixeira, but to become the champion again.
“I’m going to focus on this fight to fight for the title, it’s really sad what happened with Glover to lose the fight, but I’ve got to stay grounded and focussed on this. Glover’s my friend but I’m going there to fight for the belt.”
Check out the full UFC 295 media day appearance from Alex Pereira above.
