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In 2022, Alex Pereira was gearing up to face longtime combat sports rival Israel Adesanya for the first time in MMA. Ahead of their bout, 'Poatan' took to mocking his foe's training methods. Specifically, he took aim at 'The Last Stylebender', sharpening his reflexes by dodging tennis balls thrown at him.
In response to footage of Adesanya's training, Pereira posted an Instagram clip of himself training as well. Instead of traditional sparring, Pereira was on a hoverboard, where he engaged in some light sparring with one of his training partners. He captioned the video by challenging Adesanya to do the same.
Check out Alex Pereira's hoverboard sparring session:
The pair went on to meet at UFC 281, where Pereira dethroned Adesanya as middleweight champion after mounting a comeback to TKO him in round five. Unfortunately, 'Poatan' failed to defend his newly acquired 185-pound strap, dropping it to Adesanya in an immediate rematch.
Off the heels of one of 2023's greatest knockouts, Pereira, who was perhaps too big for middleweight, moved up to light heavyweight, where he has since gone on to capture the title and defend it. In fact, his first successful title defense took place just yesterday at UFC 300.
The champion took on former titleholder Jamahal Hill, who was returning from a horrific Achilles tendon rupture that had sidelined him for an entire year. It was Pereira's finest performance to date, as he knocked Hill out in just three minutes, taking virtually no damage for as little as the fight lasted.
Half of Alex Pereira's wins are over UFC champions
When Alex Pereira fought Sean Strickland, hardly anyone could have predicted that 'Tarzan' would go on to capture middleweight gold. But he did. Strickland is a former UFC middleweight champion, and Pereira knocked him out before he captured the belt.
Afterward, 'Poatan' TKO'd Israel Adesanya to capture middleweight gold himself. Upon his move to light heavyweight, all he faced were former champions, as he defeated Jan Błachowicz and knocked out Jiří Procházka and Jamahal Hill, all three of whom are former light heavyweight champions.
Thus, five of Pereira's 10 MMA wins have come over titleholders.
