Alan Jouban: If he retires tomorrow, UFC champion Alex Pereira is already a Hall of Famer

Alan Jouban thinks UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has already cemented his legacy.

Pereira had a banner 2024, scoring knockouts of Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka, and Khalil Rountree in a six-month period in title fights. In just 10 fights in the octagon, “Poatan” has already captured UFC titles in two divisions.

UFC analyst and former fighter Jouban thinks Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) has achieved enough to earn a place in the UFC Hall of Fame.

“If he retires tomorrow, nobody in the history of the UFC has done what he has done in such a short amount of time,” Jouban said on MMA on SiriusXM. “Look at what he has done. It’s unprecedented, so I would say yes.”

Jouban explains what makes Pereira so special.

“Not only is he a guy that has this mystique, that has this following of kids and people of all ages, and has carried the UFC on his back, but the one thing that he does better than anybody else in the UFC is that he puts a bow on it and he finishes fights,” Jouban said. “You put Alex Pereira in the main event slot on any card, any time of the year, people are going to leave there with a smile on their face because they got to see a knockout.

“They got to see a devastating knockout early. You don’t have that trust in a lot of other fighters. If they have a draw, a big name, you can’t guarantee that with a Khabib (Nurmagomedov) or Islam (Makhachev) or some other type of fighter. But you know with Alex Pereira is in there, somebody’s going to get knocked out and it’s all that we’re going to be talking about the next day.”