6 Fighters Who Could Become the UFC's Next 2-Division Champ After Pereira's Win

Last Saturday, in the main event of UFC 295, Brazil's Alex Pereira cemented his place in the MMA history books by becoming a two-division UFC champion.

The Brazilian, who previously reigned as a two-division champ in kickboxing, first got his hands on a UFC title in 2022, when he knocked out Israel Adesanya to claim the promotion's middleweight belt. After losing the title in a rematch with Adesanya, he then hiked up to the light heavyweight division where, after debuting with a decision win over Jan Blachowicz, he claimed the vacant title with a knockout win of Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295.

With his win over Prochazka, Pereira is now one of nine fighters in UFC history to claim titles in two weight classes, following in the footsteps of legends like BJ Penn, Randy Couture, Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, Georges St-Pierre, Amanda Nunes and Jon Jones.

Of course, Pereira will not be the last UFC fighter to achieve two-division glory. In fact, there are several competitors in the promotion right now who could add their names to that esteemed list before the next year is out.

Keep scrolling for the fighters we think have the best chance of pulling it off.

Kamaru Usman is considered one of the greatest welterweights in UFC history. Really, he is the clear-cut second-best behind the great Georges St-Pierre. Sorry, Matt Hughes.

Unfortunately, Usman has fallen on hard times in the division he once ruled.

First, he surrendered the title with a shocking head-kick knockout loss to Leon Edwards. Then, in his bid to reclaim the title from Edwards, he lost a decision.

After his second loss to Edwards, Usman began flirting with the idea of a move up to the middleweight division. In the end, he made the debut in the new weight class on extremely short notice, agreeing to a UFC 294 fight with the undefeated contender Khamzat Chimaev on just 10 days' notice.

Usman ended up suffering a majority-decision loss in his middleweight debut, but performed extremely well in the fight—especially given the short-notice circumstances. In fact, he performed so well that some fans now believe he has the chops to win a second title in the division, even at 36.

He doesn't currently have a fight booked, but his next Octagon appearance should tell us a lot about his prospects in his new weight class.

Aljamain Sterling is considered one of the greatest bantamweights in MMA history, but after relinquishing the division's title with a knockout loss to Sean O'Malley earlier this year, he has been considering a move up to featherweight.

It makes sense for the former bantamweight king. He always endured a brutal cut down to 135 pounds and would probably feel better—and perform better—with a less taxing cut.

While Sterling still hasn't officially committed to a featherweight move by accepting a fight in the division, he recently divulged that he has been speaking to UFC matchmakers about making it happen.

He was even offered a fight with the division's No. 7 contender, Calvin Kattar, though he has yet to accept.

"I was offered Kattar, amongst three others," Sterling said on his YouTube channel (via MMA Mania). "Two of the guys were actually friends so I said I would respectfully like to decline those. One of them was coming off a loss. Kattar was the highest ranking one out of all of them."

Whomever Sterling fights in his featherweight debut, he has as good of a chance as anyone at unseating the division's king, Alexander Volkanovski.

After a pair of wins over UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, lightweight champ Islam Makhachev is the No. 1-ranked fighter in the promotion's pound-for-pound rankings.

That distinction puts Makhachev in position to do pretty much whatever he wants, and while there is a growing queue of contenders at lightweight, what he wants is seemingly to move up to welterweight in pursuit of a second title.

The welterweight title will be up for grabs at UFC 296 next month, when champion Leon Edwards defends the belt against long-time contender Colby Covington.

Makhachev has said he is hoping to challenge the winner of that fight for the title.

"If they call me, I will be ready for Colby or Leon," Makhachev said before his latest fight with Volkanovski, which he won by first-round knockout. "[I'm ready for] any fights, but my dream, my goal, I want a second belt."

After all he's accomplished at lightweight, it's possible Makhachev would be the favorite over either welterweight.

Deiveson Figueiredo is well on his way to becoming a two-division champion.

The Brazilian is a two-time champion at flyweight, and after coming up short in a thrilling championship rivalry with Brandon Moreno, decided he no longer wanted to endure the cut down to 125 pounds and announced plans to move up to bantamweight.

Figueiredo will make his debut at bantamweight against No. 8-ranked contender Rob Font on December 2, as part of the UFC's anticipated return to Austin, Texas.

Font is definitely a tough welcome to the division, but if Figueiredo comes out on top, he'll be looking at a top-five foe. A win over somebody in that position, when combined with his clout as a former flyweight champ, should be enough to set up a title fight, whether it's with reigning champ Sean O'Malley or somebody else.

As we covered above, Kamaru Usman decided to move up to middleweight after suffering back-to-back losses to Leon Edwards at welterweight.

From the sounds of it, Usman may not have seen the last of his rival.

Edwards, the reigning welterweight champion, has his hands full with a UFC 296 title defense against Colby Covington, but has said he is interested in chasing the middleweight title after that.

In his eyes, that would mean a fight with the winner of a UFC 297 title fight between middleweight champion Sean Strickland and top contender Dricus Du Plessis.

"I feel especially with someone like Strickland, and I think he's fighting Du Plessis soon, so either of them two would be great to fight," the Brit told Sky Sports recently. "I'm big myself. I feel like me going out and being double-champ, first ever from the UK to do it, that's definitely one of my goals. The division right now, there's no one that's exciting in the division, so for me to go out there to do that, that would be perfect."

Israel Adesanya already had an opportunity to become a two-division UFC champion but came up short.

He had his shot in 2021 when, after two defenses of the middleweight title, he climbed to light heavyweight to challenge then-champion Jan Blachowicz for a second belt. Adesanya had his moments in the fight but ultimately lost a just unanimous decision and returned to middleweight.

Adesanya had plenty more success at middleweight after losing to Blachowicz, but following a shock title loss to Sean Strickland in his last fight, he made plans to take a long break—potentially until 2027.

It's very possible Adesanya will stick to that plan, but Alex Pereira has other ideas.

Pereira is the chief rival of Adesanya's career. He's fought the Nigerian-New Zealander four times between kickboxing and MMA, and after defeating Jiri Prochazka to win the light heavyweight title at UFC 295, did his best to coax his rival back to the Octagon for one more scrap.

It remains to be seen if Adesanya will take that bait, but if he does, he will have another chance to become a two-division champion. It's a tall order, but he knocked Pereira out the last time they fought, so it's certainly possible he can pull it off.