I understand the light heavyweight title picture. It has been a mess, but this is also the first time for a long period that we haven’t had a dominant champion, so naturally, Alex beating champs/former champs is going to be a bit easier, just like Jones had these oppurtunities because there was never a dominant long reigning champion before himself. Jiri & Jan were either champs or top 2/3 when Alex fought them. Hill climbed from 8 I think when he beat Glover, maybe the Hill win gets better with time, we’ll see What separates DC and Jones from Pereira is an ATG win. While Alex does have a win over the second best middleweight of all time, he also lost in the rematch and it isn’t quite on the level of Jones beating DC and DC beating Stipe (although he lost the rematch and the rubber) That being said Alex is tied 3rd for most LHW title defences already. If you take off the stipe win his resume really is just as good as DCs if not better already.
100% although the wrestling background for DC definitely should be considered as it’s already been touched on above. Alex: Jiri x2, Blchowicz, Hill, Rountree, Izzy, Strickland DC: Gustaffson, Johnson x2, Henderson, Ozdemir, Stipe, Derrick Lewis (similair level victory to rountree) The stipe win is what elevates DC above pereira, but without it, I don’t think his resume falls short of Alex’s, but that win over Stipe is an all time great win and that’s why DC is above him, but based on resume it’s still close. Jon jones is in a different tier on his own though.
Alex was a world champion kick boxer before joining the UFC he beat Izzy in two kickboxing matches before joining the UFC.