Alex Pereira will seek his first heavyweight win at UFC 335 when he takes on fellow former interim title challenger Sergei Pavlovich.
Pereira (13-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC), a former middleweight and light heavyweight titleholder, is set to clash with Pavlovich (20-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) in a five-round bout on the Dec. 12 card, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+
). The bout will be the co-main event.UFC CEO Dana White announced the fight Saturday on Nina Drama's Kick.com live stream, and the promotion made it official during the UFC 332 broadcast.
TITANS COLLIDE IN VEGAS 🤜💥🤛@SPavlovich13 and @AlexPereiraUFC meet in the #UFC335 co-main event!
— UFC (@ufc) October 4, 2026
[ LIVE DEC 12 on @ParamountPlus ] pic.twitter.com/xqDljqXju9
Pereira, 39, came up short in
his bid to become the first in UFC history to claim a version a title in three weight classes when he suffered a second-round TKO loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250 in June. The Brazilian protested the outcome by claiming illegal strikes, and even threatened to retire from MMA due to safety concerns.
"Poatan" will instead try to rebuild his case for another heavyweight title shot against Pavlovich, 34, who is riding a three-fight winning streak after dropping back-to-back fights against Alexander Volkov and Tom Aspinall.
The latest UFC 335 lineup includes:
- Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alex Pereira
- Charles Johnson vs. Brandon Moreno
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Sergei Pavlovich meets Alex Pereira in UFC 335 heavyweight clash
