UFC analyst Daniel Cormier believes UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira isn’t far removed from being considered the greatest of all time.
Pereira finished Khalil Rountree Jr. in the UFC 307 main event last Saturday in Salt Lake City. Despite a rocky start to the fight, Pereira rallied late to badly batter Rountree and retain the light heavyweight belt.
After making UFC history numerous times in his career, Pereira is on the precipice of legend status. A potential move up to heavyweight is also possible for Pereira before he decides to hang up the gloves.
Cormier, who entered the UFC Hall of Fame in 2022, feels Pereira is on the verge of surpassing Jon Jones and others as the all-time best.
Daniel Cormier says Alex Pereira is ‘close’ to making a GOAT argument
In a recent edition of Good Guy/Bad Guy with Chael Sonnen, Cormier revealed the roadmap for Pereira to enter the GOAT conversation.
“Not quite the greatest. But if he can somehow win a fight at heavyweight, compete for the [heavyweight championship] or continue to defend this belt at light heavyweight, I don’t know that you can even question it,” Cormier said. “This man who became the middleweight champ, has defended the light heavyweight championship. He was never a real middleweight, though, he was so big, that it was easy to see how [Israel Adesanya] got him the second time…this dude is special. Very special, I believe he can do whatever he wants at this point, because he’s got a lot of goodwill with the organization right now…
“IF he did go into the office of Dana, Hunter, and those guys, and go ‘I’d like to fight Tom Aspinall for the interim championship’…those actions that he showed last weekend, lead you to those types of opportunities. The world is really his oyster in terms of what he can do next, if he so chooses to try a fight up at heavyweight…but for right now, he’s gotta fight Ankalaev, if he gets through Rakić.”
Pereira will take some time off and prepare for his UFC return sometime in 2025. He’ll likely face the Magomed Ankalaev vs. Aleksandar Rakić winner for his next title defense.