Alex Pereira reignites potential Jon Jones fight, claims he’s a ‘bigger achievement’ than Tom Aspinall

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UFC Light Heavyweight champion Alex Pereira may be booked to fight Magomed Ankalaev, but he’s still interested in fighting former divisional kingpin Jon Jones.

“Poatan” vs. “Bones” is a match up that makes sense in many ways. For one, it’s two of the largest active stars in the sport currently. Secondly, the two are the official champions in their respective divisions. Given that Pereira is somehow always the biggest person in the room and has nearly cleared out the 205-pound ranks, a jump into the Heavyweight title mix doesn’t sound unreasonable for the Brazilian knockout artist.

Generally, Pereira and Jones have been quite respectful towards one another, and Tom Aspinall is lurking as the obvious next foe at Heavyweight. For those reasons, the match up hasn’t yet really been demanded by fight fans, though it was discussed as an option prior to Jones beating up Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. Since then, talks have quieted, as Jones considers retirement or an Aspinall payday as his next move.

Well … “Poatan” still wants the fight. He revealed in an interview with Ariel Helwani that he recently talked with Jones about the potential match up, and he believes his name is a better one for Jones’ legacy than Aspinall.

“I’m the champ, I want to fight the champ. Let’s make the fight with Jon Jones … Before Jon’s last fight, we actually talked about fighting.” Alex Pereira stated through a translator (via Josh Evanoff). “More random talk, not too much about fighting. [He’s] not a friend or someone I talk with on the regular, but someone I respect. I know he respects me, and there’s mutual respect.”

He continued, “I think [Jon wants to fight me], because of the momentum and the risk, it’s a risk fighting Aspinall. There’s not a lot to gain there, it’s another title fight. But fighting Alex is much bigger achievement… It’s a bigger fight. We saw the fight [with Stipe] later. It was an impressive win and impressive performance.”

Indeed, Jones vs. Pereira would be massive bout that could move a lot of pay-per-view (PPV) buys. However, there might be an outright riot if Aspinall is left sidelined longer. Either way, Jones certainly has some leverage at the negotiation table, because either booking could be one of the biggest of 2025.

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