This past weekend at UFC 307 light heavyweight champion Alex Pereria successfully defended his belt against #8 ranked light heavyweight Khalil Rountree by TKO in the 4th round. This didn’t come without its challenges with Khalil putting the pace on Alex for the first two rounds finding openings and space to blitz forward and land some hard and accurate punches. Rountree used his boxing and footwork to catch Pereria when he threw an overzealous kick like he did in round two. But once rounds 3 and 4 came along Pereria got back in rhythm and the high altitude setting seemed to fatigue Rountree to the point where in round 4 Pereira seemed to get into a flow state dodging Khalil punches and started to advance forward where he cornered Khalil and unloaded mean shots to the face and body and finally put him away to defend his belt. 

Following the fight at the post fight press conference Pereria explained that this was a very rough and difficult training camp including issues with his Visa to the United States, a lingering rib injury and going on multiple antibiotics for illnesses he suffered leading up to UFC 307. He also explained that due to all of these reasons he plans to take an “extended break” ( a normal break for a regular UFC champion) which will probably extend to March of 2025. So who will Poatan face next?

The easiest and most logical option is the winner of Magomed Ankalaev against Alexander Rakic at UFC 308. Most fans speculate it will be Ankalaev but the winner of this bout will most likely be next. Before Rountree, Ankalaev was next in line and was supposed to compete with Pereria but there were contract disputes and issues with where it would be held so it was given to the next in line who was Rountree.

Ankalaev has a record of 19-1-1 only losing to Paul Craig back in 2018 but had been on a massacre of the light heavyweight division ever since beating names like Johnny Walker, Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos. Ankalaev is very interesting when it comes to matching up with Pereria because of the grappling aspect. Ankalaev has gone on record saying that he wants to strike with Pereria but it is highly unlikely. Ankalaev is a Sambo specialist which involves a heavy amount of grappling and his game does involve the dangers of the takedown and his ground and pound which is devastating shown in his last fight with Johnny Walker. Pereria hasn’t gone against a solidified grappler like Ankalaev but it would be fun to see how much his ground game has grown since coming over from kickboxing.

Another scenario which seems more unlikely now and more of a matchup to make later is a move up to heavyweight which can either involve Jon Jones or more likely, Tom Aspinal. This situation is quite tricky with UFC 309 needing to happen in order to gauge how the heavyweight division can play out. If Jones and Stipe Miocic, who are the headliners for UFC 309, retire then the Aspinal and Pereira fight will have a chance to happen for the undisputed gold for heavyweight. If Jones doesn’t retire , the UFC will make the Aspinal and Jones fight with Pereria waiting to fight the winner of the two. Aspinal is also a striker heavy fighter who has a different style than Poatan with him being way more agile and one of quickest heavyweights ever using his head movements and angles to land the perfect shot. Aspinal is 15-3-0 and has extreme knockout power with the last 6 fights he has not gone beyond round 1 and having only 41 minutes of fight time in 18 pro fights! He has beaten the likes of Curtis Blaydes, who he defended his interim belt against, Sergei Pavlovich and Alexander Volkov. 

There have been talks recently about Pereria moving back down to middleweight to fight current champion of that division Dricuis Du Plesis but has shut down that avenue for now wanting training partner Sean Strickland to have his moment and to quote “not get in his way”. 

So whenever Alex “Poatan” Pereria comes back whether it be to defend his light heavyweight belt or if it’s to challenge for something like triple champion which has never been done before it would only solidify his status as a Goat of the sport and it is fantastic to be able to witness history in the making in combat sports.