Getty Alex Pereira
Current UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira recently took aim at newly crowned 205-pound king Jamahal Hill via social media.
“Sweet Dreams” captured light heavyweight gold this past weekend during the UFC 283 headliner in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Hill battled former champion Glover Teixeira for Jiri Prochazka’s vacant strap, and after five rounds and setting the division’s record for most significant strikes landed, Hall was awarded the belt via unanimous decision (50-44, 50-44, 50-44).
Hall is the fourth man to hoist the light heavyweight championship since Jon Jones left the division. And well, according to Pereira’s recent tweet, he’d like to be the fifth combatant to call the belt his.
“Poatan” took to Instagram to comment on a video Hall posted on his feed. The video featured Sweet Dreams responding to Prochazka’s recent callout when he said he was “coming” for Hall. “Where you at, though?” Hall says in the video. “Where you at, though? And by the way, that’s what she said. That’s what she said!”
Prochazka remains on the sidelines with an injured shoulder. And Pereira seemingly sees this as the perfect opportunity to move up a weight class and battle to become a double champ. “I heard Prochazka is injured,” Pereira wrote in the post’s comment section. “What about knocking me out?”
Pereira became the middleweight kingpin in November when he dethroned longtime champion Israel Adesanya via fifth-round TKO at UFC 281. A prolific knockout artist, the former two-division Glory kickboxing champion was in Teixeira’s corner during the Hall fight. Poatan holds a professional mixed martial arts record of 7-1 whereas Sweet Dreams is 12-1 with one no contest.
Prochazka Hopes to Return to the Octagon This Summer
Denisa dropped the 205-pound belt after suffering a shoulder injury while preparing to headline UFC 282 opposite Teixeira in December. The fighter appeared on MMA Fighting’s “The MMA Hour” this Monday, and he revealed to host Ariel Helwani that he expected to make his Octagon return this summer.
“Everything is going a great way,” Prochazka said. “Next week I’m going to Las Vegas to continue in rehabilitation and all these processes to be quick, to [have] the fastest way back possible. I don’t want to be [too] fast for the shoulder, but it’s getting much better than everybody expects, so I’m happy for that.
“I think I can be back in July or August, something like that. Six or seven months, something like that. Because I don’t want the fastest way back just to fight.
“I know this is not the best attitude. I want to be sure that my body works for 200 percent, and I think it can be in summer of this year. Just let me work on that and I will be back as soon as possible.”
Prochazka Understands Hill May Not Want to Wait Until Summer to Fight, Said Anthony Smith Deserved a Shot at the Belt
Because of his timeline, Denisa isn’t certain Hall will wait around until the summer to make his first title defense. And if that’s the case, Prochazka said Anthony Smith — who was the official backup fighter for Hall vs. Texeira — was a good candidate to fight Sweet Dreams next.
“On the next Jamahal Hill fight, I don’t know if he wants to wait for me until this summer,” Prochazka said. “If he wants to, it will be the best, because I’m sharpening my weapons for him. If he wants to fight in some near future, it doesn’t matter for me. Like I said, I want to see the light heavyweight division is moving, because there are good guys and see the Jamahal Hill win as a great move. I’m very happy for that and I’m looking forward for him.
“I think, it’s just my opinion, but they had a fight, they spoke about that fight, Anthony Smith and Jamahal Hill. I think he deserves a fight with Jamahal because they gave him a special step up, so why not to Smith? That’s just my opinion.”