UFC 335: Pereira would drop to 205 if he loses to Pavlovich, rejects Herb Dean

Alex Pereira is already planning his exit from heavyweight, and he has not yet fought his second fight there. Seven 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 one ended.

On the Connect Cast podcast, Pereira said he does not want Herb Dean as his referee again. "I don't want him," he said, calling Dean a risk to his health. The complaint goes back to the second-round TKO loss to Ciryl Gane in June at UFC Freedom 250, where Pereira objected to shots to the back of his head before the stoppage. He also said another referee would have produced a different result, and that he was still standing when it was stopped. Dean has not responded in the reports.

The 205 talk is the bigger story. Pereira said he is not as big as the heavyweights and will not stay and take 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 publicly backed it. He also says he expects to beat Pavlovich. Pereira vacated the light heavyweight belt in February to move up, and Carlos Ulberg later won it by knocking out Jiri Prochazka.

Israel Adesanya, speaking on the Precision podcast, did not like it. He objected to the "if I lose" framing and said he did not know why Pereira took the fight. He thinks 205 is the right weight for Pereira and that he could get a title shot there quickly. Pereira is 39, a former two-division champion, and still ranked No. 3 at heavyweight, a ranking Rizvan Kuniev has called very strange as he asks for Pereira next.

Pavlovich is no soft landing. He comes in on a three-fight winning streak that includes a 39-second knockout of Tallison Teixeira, who was training with Pereira at the time. Pereira expects him to open with a flurry and then possibly try to wrestle him to tire him out. Sparring footage posted by Championship Rounds, in which Pereira takes hooks from Glover Teixeira, drew attention to his open guard.

Several other bouts have been reported for the card without official announcement, so watch for the UFC to confirm them and for any reply from Dean.