UFC 335: Pereira says he'd return to 205 if Pavlovich beats him, rejects Herb Dean

Alex Pereira is already planning his exit from heavyweight, and he has not yet fought his second fight there. Weeks before he meets Sergei Pavlovich, he says a loss would send him back to light heavyweight, and he is still arguing about how the first heavyweight fight ended.

On Connect Cast, Pereira said he is not as big as the heavyweights and will not stay there taking a beating at a disadvantage. He expects to go straight to a light heavyweight title fight, though that is his own expectation and nobody at the UFC has said it is promised. He added that he plans to stay at heavyweight if he wins. He vacated the light heavyweight belt to move up, and Carlos Ulberg later won it.

In the same interview Pereira went back to the second-round TKO loss to Ciryl Gane in June at UFC Freedom 250. He said he does not want Herb Dean as his referee again, calling him a risk to his health. He believes another referee would have produced a different result, and says he was still standing when it was stopped. Dean has not responded in the reports. Knockout Daily notes that in Nevada a fighter can protest a referee assignment but cannot pick the referee.

Israel Adesanya, on his Precision podcast with Demetrious Johnson, did not like it. He objected to the 'if I lose' framing, said he does not know why Pereira took the fight, and thinks 205 is where Pereira does his best work and could get a title shot quickly. Pereira and Adesanya met twice in the UFC, with one win each, and are now on friendly terms.

Pavlovich is no soft landing. He is on a three-fight winning streak that includes a 39-second knockout of Tallison Teixeira, who had been training with Pereira's team. Pereira expects him to open with a flurry and, if striking fails, try to wrestle him to wear him down. Sparring footage from Championship Rounds, showing Pereira taking hooks from Glover Teixeira, drew attention to his guard.

Pereira is 39 and a former two-division champion. The rankings are odd: after UFC 333, Alexander Volkov climbed above both fighters, and only Pavlovich dropped, leaving Pereira one spot above his opponent. Watch for any reply from Dean or the commission, and for whether the UFC says anything about a title shot at 205.