The last time Alex Pereira was in Australia, he watched his arch-nemesis Israel Adesanya defeat one of the greatest fighters ever, Anderson Silva. Seen as a change of guard in the UFC, Pereira, who wouldn’t sign with the promotion until two years later, was present in the arena, watching his kickboxing foe bask in the glory of the historical bout.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, and Pereira is currently the light heavyweight champion of the UFC after having won and lost the middleweight crown to Adesanya, who is currently on hiatus after losing his title last year. And the 205-pound champ is now hoping to defend his title for the second time in Australia, but this time, too, he might be under Israel Adesanya’s shadow.

Alex Pereira wants to fight at UFC 305, possibly under ‘Izzy’

Israel Adesanya, of course, has been on hiatus since losing his title to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 last year. Perhaps the biggest upset in UFC history, this compelled the Kiwi, one of the most active champions in the promotion’s history, to take a break. And in the meantime, before he could avenge his loss, Strickland lost the title to Dricus Du Plessis. Since then, there have been reports that ‘Izzy’ will face ‘DDP’ to try and re-capture his title off of the South African.

Pereira, who is in Australia at the moment, stated in a recent interview with ‘The Herald Sun’ that he wished to fight at UFC 305 because he had taken a liking to the city of Perth, especially due to the love he had received from Aussie fans, and had made quite a few friends there.

“[Fighting in Perth] would be fantastic, even more so now feeling the warmth from all the fans, the crowd and the good people. Imagine me doing a fight here, it makes me very happy. It’s my third time in Australia. I was here when Anderson Silva fought (Adesanya in 2019), but I wasn’t the man I am now. I wasn’t known. Now, I can come back, train and work and I like it here and I’m making new friends and new contacts,” Pereira said.

The Brazilian also referenced Adesanya’s fight against Anderson Silva, but being a relatively unknown fighter then, if he fights in Perth on UFC 305, he will go into the arena as big, if not a bigger star than his nemesis. However, despite this, if Adesanya fights on the Perth card, he will most likely be the main event since it would mark the return of one of the UFC’s biggest superstars. However, Pereira’s desire to fight down under raises one very serious question.

Who will ‘Poatan’ face next?

Alex Pereira had defeated Jiri Prochazka in their UFC 295 clash for the vacant 205-pound title to become a two-division champion last November. Since then, he has defended his title against another former champion, who, like Porchazka, vacated the title upon injury: Jamahal Hill.

And after his UFC 300 victory over ‘Sweet Dreams’, he was asked a very important question: who would be his next opponent? While ‘Poatan’ wasn’t sure, he had ventured his best guess: “I think, as far as we know, most likely the next in line is Jiri Prochazka.”

However, this is not a certainty. Another strong contender is #2-ranked light heavyweight Magomed Ankalaev, who is coming off a fantastic knockout victory over 205-pound dynamo Johnny Walker. The rest of the top-five lightweights, including Hill, former champion Jan Blachowicz, and Aleksandar Rakic, have either lost their last fight or lost to Pereira recently. While the same is true of Prochazka, too, there are lingering doubts about an early stoppage, as well as whether Prochazka’s star power may be able to overcome this.