For Alex Pereira’s debut at light heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), he has a wide variety of potential opponents to choose from. As a result of Pereira’s announcement that he is prepared to make the jump from 185 pounds to 205 pounds, a number of notable personalities have made it obvious that they would gladly welcome him to his new division. One of these notable names is the current UFC champion, Jamahal Hill.

Hill directed a brief video clip on Instagram at Pereira, accompanied by the remark “Welcome can’t wait to see you.”

In a technical sense, Hill and Pereira had previously fought inside of the same octagon. Pereira was in Glover Teixeira‘s corner and in the cage after the fight at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro in January, when Hill defeated Teixeira to earn a vacant light heavyweight title.

In the event that the UFC decides not to give Pereira a shot at the light heavyweight championship right away, he might instead face a former champion in the division.

Jan Blachowicz stated to reporter Petesy Carroll that he is open to battling the hard-hitting Brazilian before Pereira’s declaration; but, his first preference would be to battle Hill for the UFC title. 

 

“I don’t think about [Pereira] right now, but I think, yeah why not?” Blachowicz said when asked about the potential matchup. “I like challenges, he’s a very big challenge. This fight will be also very big, very great, so why not? But we’ll see what’s going to be his next move.”