MMA Fantasy: What if Alex Pereira had never come to the UFC?

Alex Pereira has quickly become one of the greatest stars of the UFC's modern era. In just 8 fights under the promotion, he has beaten five champions en route to capturing the middleweight and light heavyweight titles, the latter of which he now holds and recently defended at UFC 300.

Much has been said about why 'Poatan' first signed with the UFC. It is often thought that Israel Adesanya's infamous interview, wherein he dismisses his rival's kickboxing accomplishments, claiming that his life's greatest achievement was beating him years ago.

This allegedly lit a fire in Pereira, who subsequently signed with the promotion and took it by storm. But what if it had never happened? How different would the UFC be today had 'Poatan' never enthroned himself as the latest great Brazilian MMA fighter?

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Alex Pereira's absence in the middleweight division

By 2022, Israel Adesanya was close to lapping the middleweight division. After first knocking out Robert Whittaker to capture the 185-pound strap, 'The Last Stylebender' went on to defend the belt five times, during which he ran through most of his division's top contenders.

There was a shortage of compelling challengers. Whittaker, who was in the top three, had already lost to Adesanya twice. Meanwhile, another top-ranked foe was Derek Brunson, who was TKO'd by the Nigerian-Kiwi during the latter's pre-championship days. Alex Pereira was the only option that sparked interest.

He had twice beaten Adesanya in kickboxing. Naturally, due to Adesanya operating mainly as a kickboxer in the UFC, with no offensive wrestling or grappling to speak of, many wondered if history would repeat itself, if it would be just another kickboxing bout.

But without Pereira, who would have Adesanya faced? The likely option would have been Brunson in a rematch, which 'The Last Stylebender' is likely to have won due to Brunson's tendency to lead with his chin, lunge into exchanges, and shoot for takedowns with no setup.

Thus, Adesanya would have likely remained the middleweight champion for all of 2022 but would have still lost the belt in 2023 to Sean Strickland, who was a difficult stylistic matchup for him, who would have subsequently lost to Dricus du Plessis.

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Alex Pereira's absence from the light heavyweight division

Ever since Jon Jones departed from the UFC light heavyweight division, it has struggled for consistency. Alex Pereira seems to be the first beacon of stability since, with the belt having changed owners several times, going from 'Bones' to Jan Błachowicz to Glover Teixeira to Jiří Procházka to Jamahal Hill.

Besides Jones, none of the aforementioned champions managed to defend the title except for Błachowicz, who only defended the title against then-middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Without 'Poatan,' it is probable that the 205-pound belt would have been most recently fought over by Procházka and Hill.

The matchup was teased in the past. Moreover, they were the most recent light heavyweight champions prior to Pereira's ascension.

If 'Poatan' ever moves up to heavyweight and does the impossible by beating Jon Jones, it would be yet another feat that would have gone unseen had he never joined the UFC.