Alex Pereira Calls Out Jon Jones In Front Of The Rome Coliseum

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira has put the pressure on Jon Jones to face him following another call-out. 

Pereira recently reclaimed his light heavyweight title by stopping Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320 in the first round in October. This was the perfect response to the first fight at UFC 313, where Alex suffered a unanimous decision defeat, thus losing his belt in March. A third fight is unlikely, despite the rivalry being at 1-1. Alex injured his foot in the fight, meaning he is out until next year, although he would likely be ready for a UFC White House fight in June. Alex took his opportunity to call out Jones by shadow-boxing in front of the Rome Coliseum. 

Jones, meanwhile, vacated his heavyweight belt in June and retired. However, he did say he was coming out of retirement as he reentered the UFC testing pool. Jones and Pereira were not impressed by the heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall’s no-contest against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321. Aspinall could not continue fighting following the first round after Gane’s accidental double eye poke. Alex and Jones talked up a fight in response to make the heavyweight division great again. Jones also suggested that Aspinall was overrated.

“Tom’s a great athlete, but I do feel like he’s a one-trick pony. I believe that his wrestling and jiu-jitsu is incredibly overrated. He has a beautiful one-two…that’s really about it. “He couldn’t touch Ciryl Gane at all. That’s the way I felt. I feel like Gane was just getting warmed up. “He was touching him. He was so comfortable," Jones said

Dana White has stated that he wants to make the Aspinall vs. Gane rematch, as soon as possible. That will likely happen in 2026, meaning Jones vs. Pereira could open up.  

"He’s at home recovering. As soon as he’s able to fight again, we’ll book the rematch. As far as we know, he doesn’t have a detached retina, there’s no damage to the eye,” White said. “He should he’ll up soon and we’ll figure out when we can make the fight again," White said 

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