Alex Pereira may have punched his ticket to a light heavyweight title fight after a former champion of the division.

The co-feature of UFC 291 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City was a key light heavyweight matchup between Pereira (8-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Jan Blachowicz (29-10-1 MMA, 12-7-1 UFC). It was a close battle, but after earning split 29-28 scores from the judges, Pereira emerged victorious in his first light heavyweight fight in the UFC.

Blachowicz’s early gameplan was to eliminate the striking threat, as he looked for a takedown just 10 seconds into the fight. Pereira kept his legs underneath him and countered with a guillotine, but it wasn’t there. After adjusting, Blachowicz was able to get the fight to the ground and take Pereira’s back. Pereira remained calm with the full weight of Blachowicz on him, and defended submission attempts. Blachowicz racked up a lot of control time in Round 1.

Pereira worked behind the left jab early in Round 2. Blachowicz responded with leg kicks, which prompted Pereira to respond with a few hard kicks of his own. After hard punches were traded upstairs, Blachowicz completed a takedown and began working from top in guard. After wall walking, Pereira got back to his feet and eventually separated. Both fighters appeared fatigued, but Pereira kept the pressure high in the striking game. Hard punches from Pereira kept Blachowicz covering up against the cage.

With just five minutes to go, the fight was up for grabs.

Pereira led the dance in striking exchanges early in the third. Blachowicz responded with a nice charging combination, but Pereira’s volume remained higher. Midway through the round, Pereira shucked off a takedown attempt, and got right back to marching forward. A crisp left hand popped Blachowicz’s head back. With 40 seconds to go, Blachowicz grabbed a leg for a takedown, and finished out the fight in top position.

The judges were split in their decision, with dueling 29-28 scores going in the favor of Pereira.

Pereria’s light heavyweight move proved successful following a rematch loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287. The victory puts him in a position to fight for the vacant light heavyweight title in the near future.

Blachowicz walks away with his first loss since losing his light heavyweight crown to Pereira’s coach, Glover Teixiera at UFC 267 in 2021. He rebounded from that outing by picking up a TKO win over Aleksandar Rakic and fighting to a draw against Magomed Ankalev at UFC 282.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 291 results include:

• Alex Pereira def. Jan Blachowicz via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

• Derrick Lewis def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:33

• Bobby Green def. Tony Ferguson via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 3, 4:54

• Kevin Holland def. Michael Chiesa via submission (D’Arce choke) – Round 1, 2:39

• Gabriel Bonfim def. Trevin Giles via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 1:13

• CJ Vergara def. Vinicius Salvador via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

• Roman Kopylov def. Claudio Ribeiro via knockout (head kick) – Round 2, 0:33

• Jake Matthews def. Darrius Flowers via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:37

• Uros Medic def. Matthew Semelsberger via TKO (elbow, punches) – Round 3, 2:36

• Miranda Maverick def. Priscila Cachoeira via submission (armbar) – Round 3, 2:11

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 291.

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie