What Alex Pereira has accomplished in his first two years competing in the UFC is otherworldly yet it somehow feels like a fun little anecdote about the Brazilian superstar as he readies to headline UFC 300 opposite Jamahal Hill this weekend in Las Vegas.
“Yeah, he’s won two belts in two divisions in the span of two years, becoming the first person to hold both the middleweight and light-heavyweight titles, but no big deal.”
Yes big deal.
Huge deal.
It’s a much bigger deal than we have made it in the four months and 20-something days since the 36-year-old superstar accomplished the feat back in November. Think about it:
“Poatan” made his promotional debut at UFC 268 on November 6, 2021, defeating Andreas Michailidis by second-round technical knockout. Precisely 372 days later, after collecting victories over Bruno Silva and Sean Strickland, he rolled back into Madison Square Garden and collected the fifth-round stoppage he needed in order to unseat his longtime kickboxing rival Israel Adesanya from the middleweight throne.
Then, one year after that, having already dropped the middleweight strap back to “The Last Stylebender” and made the successful transition to the 205-pound ranks with a split decision win over former champ Jan Blachowicz, Pereira marched to the Octagon and registered a second-round stoppage win over Jiri Prochazka to claim the vacant light-heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 295.
In the span of 736 days, “Poatan” debuted, worked his way into a middleweight title fight, won the belt, lost the belt, went up a division, established himself as a legitimate contender and claimed a second title, amassing a 6-1 record overall with three of those victories coming at Madison Square Garden.
That is not normal.
That is not something that should just be brushed aside as some kind of everyday accomplishment, given that no one else has ever done it, or even come close.
Nine individuals have won UFC gold in two weight classes; none have won two titles in a shorter amount of time than Pereira. The next closest is Conor McGregor, who debuted April 6, 2013 and won his second title 1,317 days later.
Both Henry Cejudo and McGregor claimed their second titles quicker than Pereira — the former winning the bantamweight belt just 309 days after earning the flyweight strap, and the latter fulfilling his promise to be the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight world champion only 337 days after stopping Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to win the featherweight belt at UFC 194.
What makes Pereira’s accomplishments stand out more, however, is the comparative lack of MMA experience he had prior to arriving in the UFC, and even subsequent to scaling the ranks in two different weight classes.
McGregor had 14 pro bouts under his belt ahead of turning up in Stockholm and blasting through Marcus Brimage, while Cejudo had only six. McGregor won his first title in his seventh Octagon appearance, and second belt in his 10th, with “Triple C” getting there in his ninth and 11th contests.
Pereira had made just four appearances in MMA prior to reaching the UFC — and only one since May 2016 — and proceeded to win gold in his fourth and seventh trips into the Octagon.
To put that into further perspective, here’s a look at the dates and duration it took each of the other six two-division titleholders to accomplish the rare feat, with the number in parenthesis indicating how many UFC appearances they had to that point, including that fight.
Randy Couture
UFC Debut: May 30, 1997
Heavyweight Title: Dec. 21, 1997 (4); Nov. 17, 2000 (5); March 3, 2007 (17)
Light-Heavyweight Title: June 6, 2003 (11)
Double Champ Status: 3,565 days after debut
Time Between Belts: 1,370 days (second HW win to LHW win)
Daniel Cormier
UFC Debut: April 20, 2013
Light-Heavyweight Title: May 23, 2015 (6)
Heavyweight Title: July 7, 2018 (12)
Double Champ Status: 1,905 days after debut
Time Between Belts: 1,142 days
Jon Jones
UFC Debut: Aug. 9, 2008
Light-Heavyweight Title: March 19, 2011 (8)
Heavyweight Title: March 4, 2023 (23)
Double Champ Status: 5,321 days after debut
Time Between Belts: 4,369 days
Georges St-Pierre
UFC Debut: Jan. 31, 2004
Welterweight Title: Nov. 18, 2006 (8); April 19, 2008 (12)
Middleweight Title: Nov. 4, 2017 (22)
Double Champ Status: 5,027 days after debut
Time Between Belts: 3,487 days
B.J. Penn
UFC Debut: May 4, 2001
Welterweight Title: Jan. 31, 2004 (8)
Lightweight Title: Jan. 19, 2008 (12)
Double Champ Status: 2,452 days after debut
Time Between Belts: 1,450 days
Amanda Nunes
UFC Debut: Aug. 3, 2013
Bantamweight Title: July 9, 2016 (7)
Featherweight Title: Dec. 29, 2018 (11)
Double Champ Status: 1,975 days after debut
Time Between Belts: 904 days
Even in exclusive company, the kickboxing great has done something highly irregular, but there is even more to it than just the swiftness with which he’s been able to collect a pair of titles for his mantle.
Each of Pereira’s last five fights have come against opponents that had held or would hold UFC gold — Strickland, Adesanya twice, Blachowicz, and Prochazka.
He beat a future champion ahead of his middleweight title win and a former champion ahead of his light-heavyweight title victory, which a couple others did as well (Nunes and St-Pierre), but they were each far more experienced competitors that had spent heaps of time at the top of their first division, waltzing right into championship bouts in the second weight class.
Pereira has done all this in seven UFC appearances.
Sidenote: the fact that Nunes has beaten every woman that has held the title in both the bantamweight and featherweight divisions might be the most insane accomplishment in UFC history.
This weekend in Las Vegas, Pereira has the opportunity to add to the legend by defeating another former 205-pound titleholder in Hill, who won the belt in January of last year and was forced to relinquish the title after suffering a torn Achilles tendon during a pickup basketball game in July. He has won four straight and has gone 6-1 with one no-contest in eight UFC appearances to date, and seemed like he had the opportunity to embark on a solid reign atop the division prior to his injury and Pereira’s subsequent arrival.
A win for “Poatan” will put him at 7-1 in the UFC with victories in three championship fights across two divisions, with each of the last five wins against fighters with championship histories.
Couture and Cormier never did that. Neither did St-Pierre, Penn, or McGregor. Jones came close, beating four straight titleholders, while Cejudo posted three straight victories over UFC champs.
The only person to best Pereira’s mark from the double-champ collective is Nunes, who won a staggering eight consecutive bouts against individuals that had won or went on to win UFC gold, and she’s rightfully considered the greatest female fighter of all time as a result. (See above note one more time)
What the Brazilian is doing is historic, and we really should be talking about it more in those terms.
One last thing: what happens if he beats Hill, and then decides to chase a third title in as many years by venturing up to heavyweight in the back half of 2024?
It’s not out of the question.