UFC's Alex Pereira Eyes Jon Jones Title Fight, Dismisses Possible Tom Aspinall Bout

UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira expressed his desire Friday to challenge for the UFC heavyweight title.

Speaking on his YouTube channel (h/t ESPN's Andreas Hale), Pereira talked about eventually wanting to vie for the world heavyweight championship currently held by Jon Jones:

"I'm 37, so I have to go directly to the top, directly to the belt," Pereira said regarding the heavyweight division. "If it's Jon Jones, if it's [Tom] Aspinall, whoever, to me [it] doesn't matter. I'm just visualizing the belt."

While Pereira is open to fighting Aspinall in the future if he becomes world heavyweight champion, he clarified that a bout against Aspinall doesn't interest him currently since he is only the interim champ:

"It doesn't interest me at the moment to fight him. It doesn't make sense to dispute the interim belt. I am not belittling him. I respect him a lot. I think he is an incredible athlete, a guy who is very dangerous [and] technical. I'm just talking about disputing an interim belt. There is no point for me."

Pereira, who is fresh off beating Jiří Procházka to retain the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 303 last month, has yet to foray into the heavyweight ranks during his MMA career.

The Brazilian superstar has gone 11-2 in his MMA career thus far following a highly successful career in kickboxing.

He won his first UFC title in 2022, beating Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title, although he dropped the belt back to Adesanya in the rematch.

That led to Pereira making the move to light heavyweight, and he has gone a perfect 4-0 since the transition, including beating Procházka for the vacant light heavyweight title last year.

Jones, 36, moved up to heavyweight last year after spending nearly his entire career as a light heavyweight. In his first heavyweight bout, Jones beat Ciryl Gane for the vacant UFC heavyweight title at UFC 285.

A title defense was scheduled against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 in November 2023, but Jones had to pull out due to a torn pectoral tendon, and he has been recovering ever since.

During Jones' absence, Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 to win the interim UFC heavyweight title.

Aspinall is set to defend the interim title for the first time at UFC 304 on July 27 when he takes on Curtis Blaydes.

While Aspinall may not be as highly touted as Jones, who is 27-1 with one no contest in 29 career MMA fights, he is 14-3 in his own right and has won 10 of his past 11 fights.

For now, Pereira is focused on recovering from two broken toes, but despite having fought in both April and June of this year, he is aiming to return to the Octagon in December.