UFC 303: Alex Pereira Can’t Be Denied the Chance to Win a Historic Third UFC Title

Jiří Procházka was very concerned about magic and ghosts ahead of the UFC 303 main event. Perhaps the supernatural force he should have been worried about was Alex Pereira’s left hook.

Just like in their first meeting last fall, “Poatan” won by a second-round knockout Saturday night in Las Vegas. Only this time, the UFC light heavyweight champion made it look easy and decisive.

After methodically taking down Procházka for most of the first round, Pereira dropped the challenger with a left hook just before the horn. Procházka managed to get up and stagger to his corner between rounds, but he never seemed to fully regain his senses. A headbutt to start the second round put him back on the mat, and a few largely unnecessary follow-up blows from Pereira removed any doubt.

For Pereira it seemed like a piece of cake. In less than four years in the UFC, he has won titles in two different weight classes. He’s beaten just about everyone worth talking about at light heavyweight and has now casually started talking about a move to heavyweight, where he could realistically pursue an unprecedented third UFC title.

The only problem is the murky waters at the top of that division. Current champion Jon Jones is recovering from a torn pectoral muscle and stubbornly refuses to consider any title contenders other than former champion Stipe Miocic, who is 41 and hasn’t won a fight in almost four years. Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has already booked a fight with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in Manchester next month, which means we all have to pretend it’s not weird that someone is defending the interim title while the real title is still a long way away.

Meanwhile, there’s Pereira. The only reasonable opponent left for him at 205 pounds is Magomed Ankalaev. And hey, no offense, but I couldn’t even type that last sentence without yawning. It would be a good fight, I’m sure. It would probably test Pereira’s game more. It just wouldn’t be something anyone (outside of the Ankalaev family) would get all that excited about.

Pereira’s trajectory now is a superstar story. The man has been a rocket since signing with the UFC, and somehow it feels like he’s just getting started. It would be a crime to deny the man the opportunity to pursue a whole new stratosphere of greatness. Who knows, a third UFC title might even make him smile.

A few more notes on UFC 303…

• Take a moment to pause and enjoy the week Diego Lopes just had. He was gaining weight and was dead asleep at 4 a.m. when his manager woke him up to tell him Brian Ortega wouldn’t make it to 145 pounds. So okay, Lopes told him, he would fight the 155-pound man. Then Ortega pulled out of the fight altogether and told Lopes he would go ahead and fight Dan Ige at a catchweight. That’s a man about to be destroyed. Against whom and at what weight are just details.

• I know Mayra Bueno Silva was upset that the referee stopped her fight with Macy Chiasson because of a cut. That’s a tough way to lose. But if you hear an arena full of people gasp at the sight of your facial wound when it’s displayed on the big screen, that’s a sign that it might be time to call it quits.

• Roman Dolidze and Anthony Smith almost convinced me that the UFC shouldn’t have tried so hard to fit a light heavyweight undercard fight into this lineup. The original plan was two completely different 205 pounders. Then it changed and changed again and we ended up with a fight with no clear stakes and not much motivation on either side. Sometimes when a fight fails, maybe it’s best to let it go?

• Joe Pyfer needed a big rebound win. He got it, seemingly with ease, and then addressed the haters that I’m not entirely convinced he actually has. Fans can be fickle. Especially if the hype train is still leaving the station, it won’t take much to convince people to jump off. Pyfer’s loss to Jack Hermansson could have been a necessary step in his further growth. However, there is still room to grow some more.

• Payton Talbott just showed us what a -2000 favorite really looks like. When you become one of the biggest favorites in UFC history, it’s hard to do anything worthwhile. Difficult, but not impossible. Talbott needed just 19 seconds to let Yanis Ghemmouri shine. And honest? He didn’t even need all those 19 seconds. The future looks bright, but there will likely be a step up in difficulty soon.

• Ian Machado Garry now has eight wins in the UFC, but not many recent highlights. He dismissed Michael “Venom” Page as an overhyped head turner for this event, but narrowly defeated him. An ungenerous interpretation of Garry’s performance to date might suggest that he only looks good when he’s up against lower-level competition. Ironically, that’s exactly the criticism he leveled at MVP. The difference is that Garry is only 26, so there is a lot of time on the clock. But after the last few forgettable decision victories, you can see that people’s patience is starting to wear thin.