Alex Pereira is set to make his heavyweight debut on June 14th at the UFC White House event, and “Poatan” is anything but undersized as we approach that date.
It seems crazy that Pereira used to make middleweight on a regular basis. The Brazilian kickboxer has always been huge for his weight class, and after he held the middleweight title he effortlessly moved up to light heavyweight and captured that title too. Now a two-time 205 champ, Pereira has moved on to try for gold in three divisions … a historic
accomplishment that has never been done in UFC.
Standing in his way is Ciryl Gane, who will fight him for the interim heavyweight title at UFC Freedom 250. Gane is not a small heavyweight. In his last title fight against Tom Aspinall (don’t ask how it ended), Gane weighed in at a whopping 247.5 pounds.
Now Alex Pereira is showing that he’s right up there with Gane.
Video from Pereira’s socials shows the heavyweight challenger stepping on the scale at 247 pounds. “Poatan” then dropped a rare smile and a big flex to show it’s all muscle.
Don’t think this is some sudden transformation: Pereira was up at 243 pounds a few months out from his light heavyweight rematch with Magomed Ankalaev. He used to show up to fight week around 227 pounds, leaving a big cut. Those days are over now as he gets to enjoy remaining at his natural weight without any concern for cutting at all.
It should be interesting to see how Pereira competes another division up. The highest he’s ever fought at was 95kg (209 pounds) in his glory days. Will the extra 35 pounds make those hammers on the ends of his arms even more deadly? Or could he lose some speed and pop as he approaches 250?
