Where Does ‘Poatan’ Fit in the Pantheon?
Alex Pereira is once again the UFC light heavyweight champion, having regained the title he lost in March to Magomed Ankalaev in resounding fashion to wrap up UFC 320 on Saturday evening. An overhand right to the temple had Ankalaev desperately reaching for a single leg, but Pereira was having none of it, forcing his Russian adversary to the canvas and smashing out the finish before delivering his infamous “You see this?” gesture — the one he first offered towards Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 —towards the beaten Ankalaev.
The quiet and menacing Brazilian is a terrifying presence in the Octagon and was far more aggressive this time around, closing the distance and bringing the fight to Ankalaev immediately, seeking to waste no time in showing that what transpired the last time had more to do with his health than anything else. Point taken, and now we have to start trying to figure out where the 38-year-old stands amongst the all-time greats in UFC history.
Pereira is now the fourth individual to hold UFC gold on three different occasions or more, joining Randy Couture (5), Georges St-Pierre (3), and Amanda Nunes (3) in accomplishing that feat. Each of his last 10 bouts has either been a championship bout or fights against an opponent that previously held or went on to hold UFC gold, while eight of his 12 UFC appearances have been championship contests. He’s amassed a 10-2 record with eight finishes, three title wins as the challenger, and three successful title defenses as well, doing it all in less than four years while frequently stepping up in big moments.
The Hall of Fame is a guarantee, but with each title win or defense, Pereira continues to make his case for standing alongside the most iconic names in the sport.
He’s beating competitors that could be dominant champions in a different time or if he simply did not stand in their way, and he’s doing it with style points. There are no layups, no duds, and when he’s lost, Pereira has turned around and gotten things moving in the right direction straight away.
Official Scorecards | UFC 320: Ankalaev vs Pereira 2
He’s won gold in two weight classes — one of just nine competitors to do so — and accomplished it quicker than anyone before him, needing just seven bouts to add the light heavyweight title to the middleweight strap he won in his fourth UFC appearance. And he wants to keep doing more, chasing even more achievements, saying after his UFC 320 triumph that he would like to test himself at heavyweight.
I’m not necessarily a big fan of the whole “there can only be one” point of view when it comes to discussing greatness in sport and getting into “Michael vs. LeBron” debates because their subjective arguments with cases to be made on both sides, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you Pereira is the fourth or seventh or 12th best fighter in UFC history.
Fight by Fight Preview | UFC Rio
Instead, what I will suggest is that he already merits consideration amongst the best of all time, and if he gets his wish to go up to heavyweight and challenge for gold there, his case will only continue to get stronger.
Alex Pereira is a special talent, and it is imperative that we appreciate him and what he’s doing in the moment, while we can.
Merab’s Unmatched Run
Merab Dvalishvili retained the UFC bantamweight title on Saturday with a unanimous decision win over Cory Sandhagen, registering his third consecutive successful title defense — all of which have come this year — while also extending his overall winning streak to 14, which leaves him one victory behind Kamaru Usman and Islam Makhachev, and two back of Anderson Silva for the all-time UFC record of 16 straight victories inside the Octagon.
Tyson Chartier and I touched on this a little in our Coach Conversation discussion about this fight, but it bears repeating and expanding upon: “The Machine” is on one of, if not the greatest, winning streaks in UFC history, and there is no real sign of him slowing down any time soon.
Again, I’m not big on making actual rankings — that’s why The 10 is always in chronological order and just presented as a collection of great fighters/fights/moments —but objectively speaking, what Dvalishvili has done, especially over his last eight fights, is insane. During that span, he’s beaten Marlon Moraes, Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, Sean O’Malley, Umar Nurmagomedov, O’Malley again, and Sandhagen, which is just an insane gauntlet of contenders and former champions, who, at the time they fought, had a combined 73-23 record with a couple of no contests. That’s a .745 winning percentage, and most of the losses that occurred in there came in championship bouts or against other elite contenders.
UFC 320 REWIND: Prelim & Main Card Results | Official Scorecards | Performance Bonuses
Just as there haven’t been any layups for Pereira, Dvalishvili hasn’t been taking any easy fights either, and the division is at a place where there is always another tough out at the ready… and Merab wants to fight them, soon.
Even just his three title defenses this year puts him in rarified air, as one of only eight champions to ever accomplish that feat, and to do it against the former champ and a pair of competitors that — again, similar to the men Pereira is facing —would almost assuredly hold UFC gold at some point if he wasn’t around is just astounding. The fact that he’s continuing to show improvements and developments each time out only makes it even more impressive.
The Continued Case for Giving Fighters Time
Youssef Zalal earned his fifth straight win on Saturday, taking an outstanding tactical approach to his fight with Josh Emmett and submitting the power hitter 98 seconds into the opening round. In the fight before that, Joe Pyfer navigated his way through a tough first round where he had to be careful to collect a second-round submission win over Abus Magomedov that ran his winning streak to three and put him on the cusp of cracking the Top 15 in the middleweight ranks.
The televised prelims opened with Edmen Shahbazyan registering his third win of 2025, as he hurt and dispatched Andre Muniz in the final 60 seconds of the opening round. Earlier in the night, Ramiz Brahimaj posted his third straight win as well, submitting Austin Vanderford with a 10-finger guillotine choke.
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The common thread with all these competitors is that when they first arrived on the UFC stage, they each carried varying degrees of hype and buzz, only to stumble at some point and have a ton of people opt to get off the bandwagon and declare they’d seen enough to make their final assessments of those athletes. Now, each is on the upswing again, having learned from their mistakes, grown as athletes and individuals, and shown that maybe people were a little premature in thinking they knew exactly where each of these individuals fit in their respective divisions.
MMA is an insane sport, and the variables that go into winning and losing, success and failure, are numerous and varied, which means sometimes it takes longer than you would expect, hope, or like for competitors to find that sweet spot where their performances match their potential and they start putting things together. Each of them is now exceeding expectations, showing new levels to their games, and have room to keep moving forward, and watching them continually attempt to do so has been outstanding.
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We must stop expecting development and progress to be a linear thing and writing off athletes when they falter, especially when they’re young. Only two of the 11 current champions are under the age of 31, and that’s because reaching that elite tier takes time, and that same reality holds true all the way through the ranks.
Let fighters develop. Let them make mistakes, learn, grow, and regroup. Honestly, just enjoy the fights instead of getting so caught up on trying to project who is going to end up where and forecasting everyone’s futures.
Quick Hitters
Jiri Prochazka is a chaos agent, plain and simple. His off-tempo style, willingness to wade into the fray, hands down, and ability to shift a fight on its axis at any time shone through again on Saturday as he rallied to stop Khalil Rountree Jr. and cement his place as one of the elites in the 205-pound ranks.
Ateba Gautier did what you want to see an elite prospect do when facing a short-notice opponent making their UFC debut, as he needed just 101 seconds to dispatch Tre’ston Vines. “The Silent Assassin” is now 3-0 with three first-round stoppage wins, is making a strong case for Newcomer of the Year, and might be due for a larger step up in competition next time out, just to see how he would acquit himself against someone a little more seasoned.
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Does Daniel Santos really think people don’t respect Chute Boxe and the team that Diego Lima has built in São Paulo? “Willycat” was hot after registering his second win of the year and fourth straight victory overall on Saturday, demanding people put some respect on the Chute Boxe name, but no one with any sense doesn’t think they’re a great team.
Yana Santos continues to fight her best when her opponents miss weight and make her angry. The tenured bantamweight picked up her third straight win and third victory in four fights where her opponent failed to hit the 136-pound limit Saturday, out-working Macy Chiasson across three rounds. If you sign up to fight the American Top Team representative, you’d better make weight or else you’re going to have to deal with an even more locked-in, ornery Santos come fight night.
Farid Basharat remained unbeaten with a unanimous decision win over Chris Gutierrez, surviving a heavy third-round push from “El Guapo.” It’s a good win for the Dana White’s Contender Series grad, but also another teachable moment for the 28-year-old, who looked outstanding in the first, solid in the second, and ran out of steam in the third.
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Veronica Hardy and I share a birthday, and on the day I turn 47, she’ll turn 30, and that seems unfathomable given that her UFC debut came all the way back in September 2016. She’s clearly another of the “judged too soon” set, as she’s gone 4-1 in her last five appearances after taking a three-year pause from competition between March 2020 and March 2023.
One Last Thing
It’s still surreal to me that Tom Gerbasi is gone, and I have moments every day where I hear him in my head, chuckle because I know the response he would send to an email or text message, and choke up a little because I no longer get “Gracias ESK!” notes after filing a story or recapping an event.
But it has also been really heartening to speak with a bunch of athletes in the last few weeks that have all shared stories and memories and their thoughts about TG, with every one of them talking about how much he made them feel centered in their conversations and that he genuinely cared about telling their story, fully, completely, in those moments, which is surely did.
Tom always focused on the humans stepping into the Octagon, not the fight on the horizon, and it resonated with those competitors, and continues to be a guiding principle as I go forward without my guy helping to lead the way.
I miss you, TG; we all do.
And with that, I’m out.
See you again after UFC 321.
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