Matt Brown dismisses Dana White's Pereira GOAT claim: 'No one's really buying it'

Retired UFC welterweight Matt Brown has called out Dana White’s claim that Alex Pereira would leapfrog Jon Jones as the greatest of all time should he capture a third divisional title at UFC White House on Sunday — dismissing it plainly as promotional noise.

White made the assertion ahead of the event’s co-main, where Pereira challenges Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title. A win would make the Brazilian the first fighter in UFC history to hold belts in three separate weight classes, having already claimed titles at middleweight and light heavyweight. “If he wins the third world title that night, he jumps over Jon Jones and becomes the greatest of all-time,” White told Forbes.

Brown, who spent 15 years on the UFC roster, was unimpressed. Speaking on The Fighter vs. The Writer podcast, he acknowledged White’s right to sell his events however he sees fit — but argued that anyone with a working knowledge of the sport would see through it immediately.

“It’s promoter talk,” Brown said. “It’s pretty simple, and we can just narrow it down to that and that’s Dana talking what he’s supposed to talk. No one’s really buying it. Maybe some Brazilian fan of Alex Pereira that doesn’t really watch UFC is buying it. But I don’t think any halfway knowledgeable person is buying it.”

Brown was careful to separate accomplishment from greatness. He conceded that a third title would be a historic and genuinely remarkable achievement — something no fighter has ever done — but insisted that milestone alone does not rewrite the sport’s hierarchy.

“Sometimes what gets confused is most accomplished and greatest,” Brown explained. “In terms of most accomplished, I guess if he wins a third title, you could make that argument. I still wouldn’t think it’s the case, but I could see where you could make that argument. He’s got three titles. No one else ever did it.”

To illustrate the distinction, Brown drew a parallel with boxing. “That’s like Floyd Mayweather. No real boxing historian puts him down as the greatest ever, but is he the most successful ever? By a large margin he is. A lot of times when people talk about these greatest ever debates, they get them mixed up with other ways of describing their greatness.”

Jones, who won titles in two divisions but is most celebrated for his long, effectively unbeaten 16-year reign as light heavyweight champion, remains the benchmark in Brown’s view. Pereira, who arrived in the UFC with just a 3-1 MMA record, has been extraordinary in his rise — but Brown argues the body of work simply cannot yet be compared.

Even with a third belt around his waist, Brown believes Pereira would still sit behind Jones and Georges St-Pierre in any serious all-time conversation.