{"id":138,"date":"2026-07-02T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/?p=138"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:08:10","slug":"jon-jones-alex-pereira-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/2026\/07\/02\/jon-jones-alex-pereira-ufc\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHe Came in Too Big\u201d \u2013 Jon Jones Pinpoints Alex Pereira\u2019s Biggest Mistake in UFC Freedom 250 Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much was made of Alex Pereira\u2019s heavyweight debut after he was thoroughly outclassed by Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250. The Brazilian enjoyed a remarkable run at middleweight and light heavyweight, capturing titles in both divisions, but he struggled to deal with Gane\u2019s movement, speed, and footwork on June 14.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pereira was dropped by a stiff jab before being <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pyZ9IfDSQFE&amp;vl=en\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stopped in the second round<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> following a sequence of controversial rabbit punches and elbows. Now, Jon Jones has shared his thoughts on what went wrong for Pereira. For the unversed, &#8216;Bones&#8217; had long campaigned for a blockbuster showdown with Pereira, even pushing for the matchup to headline the proposed White House card after the Brazilian captured the light heavyweight title at UFC 320.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\udfc6\ud83d\ude31 CIRYL GANE KNOCKS OUT ALEX PEREIRA IN THE SECOND ROUND OH MY GOODNESS!! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FwErsot8vL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FwErsot8vL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Home_of_Fight\/status\/2066372067226714383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/2026\/07\/02\/terence-crawford-mma-boxing\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_self\">Terence Crawford Refutes Conor McGregor\u2019s Claims of $200 Million MMA-Boxing Crossover Offer<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jones believed the fight could breathe new life into the heavyweight division, but those plans never materialized after his relationship with Dana White deteriorated. 17 days after Pereira\u2019s loss, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/2026\/07\/02\/jon-jones-ilia-topuria-ufc\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jones suggested<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the former two-division champion may have carried too much weight into his heavyweight debut.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking in an exclusive interview with <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TGlbMsblMoU\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Red Corner MMA<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Moscow, filmed days before the IBF Bareknuckle 5 event, Jones said, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI felt like Pereira, he came in too big. I think he would have been better off fighting around 230-235, keeping that speed. I feel like his power would have possibly translated over.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For context, Pereira weighed in at 251 pounds for the bout, 3.5 pounds heavier than Gane, who came in at 247.5 pounds. Jones also pointed to Pereira\u2019s hesitation inside the Octagon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He added, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn the fight you just saw him, he was waiting. He was second-guessing things, questioning things, and that\u2019s one of the worst things you can do in a fight. It feels like a nightmare when you\u2019re out there in front of your opponent, and you know the moves, know you should throw the punch or kick or go for that takedown \u2014 then you just don\u2019t. You find yourself out there watching instead of doing.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jones went on to explain that he has experienced similar moments of hesitation during training and believes Gane\u2019s southpaw stance only compounded Pereira\u2019s problems. He concluded, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve had it happen to me many times in practice, and I felt like that\u2019s what happened with Alex. He never really got his ball rolling. Ciryl Gane came at him in a Southpaw stance, which also challenges Pereira. He was fast, powerful, unorthodox. It was the perfect storm for Pereira, and he didn\u2019t survive it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jon Jones: &#8220;Alex Pereira came in too big for Gane fight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jones says the extra size may have taken away the speed and confidence that make Pereira dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he would have been better off fighting around 230, 235, keeping that speed. I feel like his power would have\u2026 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jtHef13xFD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/jtHef13xFD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RedCorner_MMA\/status\/2072424943112130725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just like Pereira, Jones also made the jump from dominating the light heavyweight division to competing at heavyweight, making his debut against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in 2023. However, Jones took a far more measured approach, spending nearly three years adding size and strength to ensure the extra weight felt natural.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He weighed in at 248 pounds for his heavyweight debut before trimming down to 237 pounds for his title defense <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/2026\/07\/01\/top-8-ufc-fighters-most-titles\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The results spoke for themselves, as Jones submitted Gane in the opening round to capture the heavyweight title and later cruised to a third-round finish over Miocic in his first successful title defense.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much was made of Alex Pereira\u2019s heavyweight debut after he was thoroughly outclassed by Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250. The Brazilian enjoyed a remarkable run at middleweight and light heavyweight, capturing titles in both divisions, but he struggled to deal with Gane\u2019s movement, speed, and footwork on June 14.\u00a0 Pereira was dropped by a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5886,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[42,33,36],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ufc","tag-alex-pereira","tag-ciryl-gane","tag-jon-jones"],"modified_by":"Kshitiz Kumar Singh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/mma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}