Alex Pereira opens up on light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291, says ‘I was waiting for him’

Alex Pereira will be returning to the octagon at UFC 291, against Jan Blachowicz, following his UFC 287 loss to Israel Adesanya in April.

Pereira will no doubt hope to make an instant impact in the division and what better way to do so that to make a statement against a former champion. 'Poatan' will be hoping that training with Glover Teixeira will give him an added advantage, as Teixeira defeated Blachowicz at UFC 267 to win the light heavyweight title.

Pereira acknowledged the danger that his opponent possesses, but believes that it is a 'good fight' for him.

Alex Pereira recently announced his debut fight at light heavyweight on his YouTube channel, and said this:

"My next opponent is Jan Blachowicz. He is a dangerous guy, an experienced guy. And a guy [that] we know - because of my training partner Glover Teixeira [who fought him]. I'm sure training hard with Glover, he will [teach] me a lot of stuff like he always does.."

Pereira continued by saying:

"Everybody knows Blachowicz is a dangerous guy, an all-rounder, but I think it's a good first fight for me. When I say my first fight, some people may think, 'Oh that's an easy opponent.' No, all of you know my story... [The UFC] wanted to give me one of the top 5 ranked [fighters]. For me, it wasn't a surprise. We were negotiating [for] a while. I was waiting for him. So that's it."

Watch the video below:

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Anthony Smith shares his thoughts on Alex Pereira's move to light heavyweight

Alex Pereira was defeated by Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 in stunning fashion, and the Brazililian announced that he would be moving to light heavyweight several days after the fight.

Pereira's gruelling weight cut to make the 185 pound limit has been well-documented, and many believed it was a matter of time before he made the move to light heavyweight.

Anthony Smith, a former light heavyweight title challenger, recently shared his thoughts on Alex Pereira's move to light heavyweight. Smith believes that 'Poatan' will suffer from the 'same problems' at 205 pounds that he would have suffered at middleweight due to his lack of grappling experience.

'Lionheart' said this:

"I'm a big kickboxing fan, so I knew Alex Pereira before he even came to MMA. I was excited to see him booked... I think the same problems he would have outside of Israel Adesanya at 185 [pounds], he's gonna have at 205 [pounds]..."

Watch the video below from 4:05: