After losing the UFC middleweight title to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 last week, Alex Pereira is moving up a weight class.

According to Drake Riggs and Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com, Pereira announced the move up from the 185-pound division in a YouTube video.

Pereira noted that while he is focused on the next challenge in the light heavyweight division, he could have another fight against Adesanya whenever he wants to and that he will keep an eye on the new middleweight champ's "behavior."

Pereira expanded on his point regarding Adesanya and the middleweight division, saying:

"I'm moving up a division now, and that's my decision, but I'm sure that if I stayed in this division I can could fight him immediately. Let's see how he behaves. I'm not going up because I can't make the weight anymore. I can make the weight at any moment.

"He's behaving like that because [UFC President] Dana White talked about my weight right after the fight and it looks like he thinks, 'This guy will never make 185 again so I'll provoke him and there's nothing he can do'. I'm sure I could fight him immediately if I insisted on this, the organization and my managers would make this fight."

At 6'4", Pereira isn't a natural middleweight, but he always managed to make weight and was a perfect 4-0 under the UFC umbrella before his second-round knockout loss to Adesanya.

After starting his MMA career 6-1, Pereira beat Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title at UFC 281 in November with a fifth-round technical knockout.

It marked the continuation of a rivalry that started when Pereira and Adesanya were both professional kickboxers. They faced each other twice in that discipline, with Pereira winning each time.

He improved to 3-0 against Adesanya in his combat sports career at UFC 281, but Adesanya finally got on the board at UFC 287, and he did not hesitate to celebrate. Adesanya pantomimed shooting arrows into Pereira after the fight, which was a mimic of Pereira's signature celebration.

While Pereira suggested that he has already accomplished all he needed to do in the middleweight division, his comments seem to indicate that he isn't against dropping back down for a title fight against Adesanya at some point if he feels provoked.

Pereira has just nine MMA fights to his credit, but he is already among the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, and he will bring some high-level competition to the light heavyweight division.

Jamahal Hill is the reigning light heavyweight champion after beating Glover Teixeira for the vacant title at UFC 283, and there are several talented fighters waiting in the wings for a potential championship bout, including Jiří Procházka and Jan Błachowicz.

Given what Pereira accomplished in the middleweight division in such a short period of time, however, he may not have to wait long for a crack at Hill and the belt.