Alex Pereira eyes Jon Jones superfight after UFC 313: 'That's the fight I want for heavyweight'

Alex Pereira is gunning for another big year.

The UFC light heavyweight champion begins his 2025 campaign at UFC 313 on March 8, when he defends his title against challenger Magomed Ankalaev in Las Vegas. But prior to that announcement, rumors swirled that Pereira may move up to heavyweight in an old-school Anderson Silva-like fashion to compete in a non-title matchup. The supposed fight? A random clash against perennial heavyweight contender Alexander Volkov, who lost a split decision to Ciryl Gane in December.

Pereira insists there was never any truth to that story, explaining Monday during an in-studio appearance on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show" that he believes the whole situation arose purely out of poor journalism practices from Brazilian media.

"Absolutely never," Pereira said of the rumor. "I think nothing came from [Volkov] either."

But the concept of fighting at heavyweight still intrigues Pereira. No UFC champion has won titles in three weight classes, and the suggestion that "Poatan" could try to make history this way has been enough to get the attention of current UFC heavyweight champ Jon Jones, who's spoken often of Pereira as a potential future opponent.

A Jones-vs.-Pereira superfight is as exciting of a champion-vs.-champion clash as the sport could request, but light heavyweight challenger Ankalaev isn't the only roadblock. At heavyweight, Jones has the interim champion Tom Aspinall to worry about — assuming that unification bout does eventually get made.

Regardless, Jones has expressed continued interest in Pereira, which "Poatan" said he understands. Pereira and Jones speak freely with one another, he said, and there's "mutual respect" between the two.

"I think it's about the momentum and also the risk," Pereira said of Jones' continued callouts. "There's a risk fighting Aspinall. No one's going to win from there — it's another title fight [for Jones], right? But fighting [me] is a much bigger achievement. So I think it's the weight of the fight, right? He says he can beat everybody and it's a bigger fight, I think that's why.

"I will fight anybody at heavyweight, but I'm the champion; Jon Jones is the champion. If Aspinall was the champ, I would want to fight him."

Pereira is coming off an exceptional year in 2024. He notched three successful title defenses with three decisive knockouts and came within a hair's breadth of being Uncrowned's Fighter of the Year. The 37-year-old champion said he has no plans to slow down in 2025, and is hoping for three more title fights within this calendar year.

While Pereira said he isn't committing to a heavyweight move with a successful title defense against Ankalaev in March, he also wouldn't rule it out.

"It's not about only fighting at heavyweight," Pereira said. "At first, I made the noise [about potentially moving up], but now I think it can be a risk, cannot be a risk. I'm the champ, I want to fight the champ, so let's make the fight with Jon Jones, that's the fight that I want for heavyweight.

"Anything's possible. A lot of things no one thought could happen, happen with me."