Alex Pereira has told his own audience what he is telling the UFC. In a video posted to his Instagram on Monday, September 7, the Brazilian said the fight he sees as the natural next step is a rematch against Ciryl Gane.

“After much time, after resting what I needed to do, after much work, after my last fight, many people are talking with who will Alex fight. I’m seeing many opinions, but I think the fight that makes sense is Ciryl Gane,” Pereira said in the video.

“That’s the fight. I’m going to work on that and from what I’m seeing, it’s something that’s going to happen.”

Pereira left the White House event on June 14 with a second-round TKO loss and a grievance in the back of his mind. Gane put him down with a jab and finished the sequence in the second round, derailing Pereira’s bid to become the first fighter to hold UFC titles in three weight classes. The Brazilian believes the finish should not have counted.

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“How the last fight [ended], there were illegal shots. I think now, with another opportunity, I can come back and show what I can do, what I can achieve, which is the third belt,” Pereira said.

Gane open to a rematch

The interim heavyweight champion is not waiting to be asked. Two days before Pereira’s video, Gane himself named Pereira as an acceptable next opponent if the UFC cannot land the alternative.

“If tomorrow it will be someone else, it’s okay. What I would like is either Tom Aspinall or a rematch against Alex Pereira,” Gane said.

The alternative is a unification bout against undisputed champion Tom Aspinall, whose absence is the reason the interim belt was created in the first place. Aspinall has not been declared fit to fight since suffering the eye injury that ended his no-contest against Gane at UFC 321 in October last year, and his camp has publicly cast doubt on whether he will compete in 2026.

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That is the door Pereira is trying to walk through. With Aspinall’s medical timeline unresolved, the interim title is the only heavyweight belt that can currently be defended, and Pereira is one of two names the holder has already signed off on.

No deal, no date

Neither fighter has said a bout agreement has been signed. Pereira described the rematch as “something that’s going to happen” rather than a scheduled fight, and the UFC has not announced anything about the interim champion’s next defense.

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