Alex Pereira has made it clear that his time at heavyweight depends on one fight.

Pereira faces Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event of UFC 335 on December 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In an interview with Connect Cast, the former two-division UFC champion said he will drop back down to 205 pounds if he loses.

“I wouldn’t stay [at heavyweight], no,” Pereira said. “I would go back to light heavyweight. I think that would be the ideal thing to do.”

Pereira made his heavyweight debut in June against Ciryl Gane for the vacant interim heavyweight title at UFC Freedom 250, which was held on the South Lawn of the White House. Gane won by second-round TKO. Pereira pushed for an immediate rematch but did not get one, and he chose to stay in the division anyway.

He explained that a second loss at heavyweight would tell him he is at too much of a disadvantage against bigger opponents. “Everyone knows I’m not a big guy like these heavyweights,” Pereira said. “So I’m not going to stay there taking a beating at that disadvantage. So I would go back to my division, where I was more comfortable. I think that would be the best thing to do.”

Pereira believes a return to light heavyweight would put him straight into a title fight, but he does not expect it to come to that, as he is confident he will beat Pavlovich.

Pavlovich enters the fight on a three-fight winning streak. He beat Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Waldo Cortes-Acosta by decision in 2025, then knocked out Tallison Teixeira in 39 seconds at a UFC Fight Night event in Macau in May. Teixeira was training with Pereira at the time. Pavlovich’s only losses since his 2018 UFC debut came against Tom Aspinall, who beat him for the interim heavyweight title in 2023, and Alexander Volkov in 2024.

Pereira expects Pavlovich to come out swinging. “I think against me, maybe he might think, ‘I’m going to unleash the machine gun and knock this guy out,'” Pereira said. “I don’t know what happens, but he might unleash the machine gun, and if he can’t land his shots, he might try to wrestle me to wear me out. But I’m getting ready, I’m excited about the training and everything I’ve been doing with the team.”

Pereira won the UFC middleweight title in 2022 by beating Israel Adesanya and the light heavyweight title in 2023 by beating Jiri Prochazka. He lost the light heavyweight title to Magomed Ankalaev in March 2025 and won it back with a first-round knockout at UFC 320 in October 2025. He vacated the title in February 2026 before moving up, and Carlos Ulberg won the vacant belt by knocking out Prochazka at UFC 327 in April.

What UFC 335 Means for Alex Pereira

Pereira is being honest about where he stands. The Gane loss showed how much size matters at heavyweight, and Pavlovich, who has won 16 of his 21 pro fights by knockout, is one of the hardest punchers in the division. Pereira has knockout power, but he is giving up a lot of weight, and a fighter who has already been knocked out once in the division knows what is at stake.

A win would change the picture quickly. Beating a top contender like Pavlovich would put Pereira back in the heavyweight title conversation and make a rematch with Gane an easy fight to sell. A loss would send him back to light heavyweight, where he believes he would step straight into a title fight, likely against champion Carlos Ulberg once Ulberg returns from a torn ACL, and where he has already shown he can beat the best in the world.

Either way, Pereira has given himself a clear path forward. That is a smart approach for a fighter at this stage of his career, and it makes UFC 335 one of the more meaningful fights on the December schedule.