Alex Pereira has seemingly ruled himself out of competing at the UFC’s planned White House event this summer.
On 14 June, the birthday of US president Donald Trump, the UFC is set to host a fight card on the South Lawn in an unprecedented move.
UFC president Dana White is close friends with Mr Trump, and the pair have sporadically revealed details around the event, with Trump saying last week that “eight or nine championship fights” are expected.
It remains to be seen, however, which fighters and potentially which champions will feature. That said, the light-heavyweight king will apparently not be taking part.
“Looks like the White House is a NO GO!!!” Pereira wrote on Instagram on Monday, posting a photo of himself and White.
Pereira gave no explanation for his apparent absence or exclusion from the event, though many fans expected the Brazilian to be a key component of the fight card.
Pereira, 38, has been a phenom since debuting in the UFC in 2021. Within a year of his promotional debut, “Poatan” was 4-0 and had taken the middleweight title from his old kickboxing rival Israel Adesanya.
Upon losing the belt to Adesanya in their 2023 rematch, Pereira moved up to light-heavyweight where he went 5-0 inside 18 months – including a title win and three successful defences.
Although Pereira lost the belt to Magomed Ankalaev this March, he avenged that result in October to become a two-time light-heavyweight champion. With that, he added to his earlier feat of becoming a two-weight UFC champion in record time.
After beating Ankalaev, Poatan called out Jon Jones for a super-fight to which the latter verbally agreed. However, White has said he does not trust Jones, hinting at the recently-retired champion’s history of legal issues and failed drug tests.
UFC icon Conor McGregor is another fighter to have thrown his hat in the ring, but the Irishman has had legal issues of his own in recent years.
Many fans are also prepared not to witness Ilia Topuria fight at the White House, despite the lightweight champion being a prime contender given his status as one of the UFC’s biggest stars.
However, while fans are citing Topuria’s recent announcement that he is taking a short break from MMA due to a “difficult moment” in his “personal life”, the former featherweight champion specified that he “won’t be fighting in the first quarter of next year”; therefore, he seemingly remains an option for the White House event.
