Tom Aspinall and Alex Pereira Tease potential heavyweight title clash at UFC 300
It seems like reigning UFC champions Tom Aspinall and Alex Pereira are teasing something big for the promotion’s milestone event next year.
Days removed from the reveal that UFC 300 would go down on Saturday, April 13, CEO Dana White announced three big matchups for the massive event, including the returns of former titleholders Jiri Prochazka and Aljamain Sterling.
No championship bouts have been revealed for the card as of yet, but it appears that current interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and reigning light heavyweight king Alex Pereira are dropping some pretty serious hints about a potential clash between the two knockout artists.
Pereira kicked things off with a somewhat subtle post on X, signaling his desire to become the promotion’s first-ever three-division world champion. Aspinall followed that up with a not-so-subtle post on Instagram, showing off a doctored image of himself sitting alongside Pereira with some holiday accessories sprinkled in.
Aspinall currently finds himself in a strange situation. He captured the interim heavyweight title following a first-round knockout of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November. The originally scheduled main event between undisputed titleholder Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic was scrapped after ‘Bones’ suffered a torn pectoral whilst training. That forced the promotion to slap together the interim title fight on a few weeks’ notice.
Typically, the interim champion moves on to unify their belt with the undisputed champ. However, that won’t be the case this time around as the UFC is sticking to its plan of booking Jones vs. Miocic in 2024. The winner would then fight Aspinall in a unification clash.
That could leave Aspinall on the shelf for as long as a year.
Alex Pereira is in a similar pickle after capturing the light heavyweight title against former champion Jiri Prochazka at MSG. ‘Poatan’ is expected to clash with Jamahal Hill next, but after ‘Sweet Dreams’ ruptured his Achilles in July, there is currently no timetable for his return. With Pereira’s next fight at 205 uncertain, a move to heavyweight for a history-making matchup against Tom Aspinall could be just what the doctor ordered for UFC 300.
Currently, there are three fights announced for the highly anticipated card in Las Vegas, including:
- Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic (light heavyweight bout)
- Aljamain Sterling vs. Calvin Kattar (featherweight bout)
- Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage (middleweight bout)
Do you want to see Tom Aspinall defend his interim heavyweight world championship against Alex Pereira at UFC 300?
