Alex Pereira eyes fight with top middleweight contender Jared Cannonier following second UFC win
Alex Pereira has set his sights on No.2-ranked UFC middleweight Jared Cannonier following his second win in the octagon against Bruno Silva.
During his post-fight interview with Paul Felder, the Brazilian picked an interesting fighter to call out. He said that Cannonier caught his attention and added that he wants to face 'The Killa Gorilla' next. Pereira said via a translator:
"Now that the fight is over... any name. I've been seeing [Jared] Cannonier doing a great job. Almost [next in] line for the title. I would love to face him."
Check out Alex Pereira's post-fight interview below:
It's unlikely that Pereira would land an opponent as highly ranked as Cannonier, given he's fairly new to the UFC. However, he has done something nobody in the MMA world has even come close to replicating – knock-out reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
In his career as a professional kickboxer, Pereira crossed paths with the current UFC middleweight king twice. Interestingly, the Brazilian got the better of Adesanya both times and knocked him out cold during their 2017 clash under the Glory banner.
However, both men have since had different career trajectories. Adesanya went on to thrive as an MMA fighter and is now the No.2 pound-for-pound fighter on the UFC roster. Meanwhile, Pereira is relatively new to the sport as he only has six pro MMA bouts on his resume.
Alex Pereira's rival Israel Adesanya is set to fight Jared Cannonier
Israel Adesanya has established his dominance after defending his title against arguably his toughest challenger in Robert Whittaker at UFC 271. 'The Last Stylebender' is now expected to fight Jared Cannonier, who scored an impressive knockout win over Derek Brunson on the same card.
Cannonier has improved to to 5-1 since moving down to the middleweight division. His latest run consists of four stoppage wins, with his lone loss coming against Whittaker.
UFC president Dana White confirmed that he's leaning towards awarding Cannonier a title shot after his latest victory. During the UFC 271 press conference, the UFC boss said:
"I was excited to see that fight to see how it was gonna play out. It was an awesome fight and yeah, I’m not gonna say no to Cannonier."
Dana White weighs in on Israel Adesanya vs. Jared Cannonier: