Tom Aspinall has ‘awkward’ run-in with Alex Pereira at airport following cryptic UFC 300 call out

Tom Aspinall has shared footage of his ‘awkward’ run-in with Alex Pereira following UFC 300.

The interim heavyweight champion was sitting in the front row as Pereira defended his 205lb belt by quickly knocking out Jamahal Hill in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

During his post-fight speech, ‘Poatan’ asked to make his heavyweight debut at UFC 301, which takes place in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, on May 4.

Aspinall seemingly put himself forward as a potential opponent by sharing a photo of him menacingly staring at Pereira as he walked to the Octagon at UFC 300.

Pereira reacted to Aspinall’s post during his post-fight press conference.

He said: “I don’t know man, only he can respond to that.

“I’m not going to give names right here, I said I wanna fight at heavyweight so why would I choose [the opponent].”

A few hours later, Aspinall bumped into Pereira as they both headed home.

The Englishman shared footage of Pereira entering the same check-in queue as him, with the caption: “Awkward.”

After a few seconds, the camera cuts off and it’s currently unclear if the potential rivals had a conversation before boarding their respective flights.

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Although both fighters and the fans want to see Aspinall vs Pereira in a few weeks’ time, UFC CEO Dana White is not that keen on the idea.

“When you think about him moving up to heavyweight, you got [Jon] Jones, you got Aspinall,” he said at the UFC 300 post-fight press conference. 

“The list goes on and on in that heavyweight division. The heavyweight division is nasty. I don’t know if that’s the right move for him.

“He looked damn good tonight in the division he’s in, so I think he might want to stick around there for a minute.”

“These are all things that we’ll talk about for the next fifteen Tuesdays. We’ll get it figured out.”

It may have to wait, but Aspinall vs Pereira seems inevitable.

For now, Aspinall is expected to play a prominent role when the UFC returns to Manchester in July, while Pereira will mostly likely be advised to take some well-deserved rest.