It’s not uncommon for Alex Pereira to travel across continents for a fight at short notice.
Pereira will face Jiri Prochazka for the light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 303 on June 29. Both fighters stepped up on 15 days’ notice to salvage the card after the originally scheduled main event between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler was canceled due to an injury to McGregor.
It would be a quick bounce back for Pereira, who is coming off a first-round knockout win over Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 in April, but his GLORY kickboxing career has him prepared to take on the odds against him.
Pereira, who has two kickboxing victories over former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, recalled a similar situation in their first bout. Pereira encountered many obstacles leading up to the bout but ultimately won by unanimous decision. As a result, “Poitan” believes he is mentally prepared for such a situation heading into his next bout with Prochazka.
“Obviously, this is not the best way to do it, but it’s nothing new for me,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve been in a similar situation. My first fight was in China against Israel. Not many people know this, but I fought two fights. [trips] I went to China for 30 days, gave interviews, took photos, and returned the next day. But my fight [it] The situation was complicated: after 30 days I returned to the fight. [Cutting] I was in the 85kg kickboxing class. We stopped three times before we reached our final destination. I was very tired, [cut] “I lost weight, did my duty, competed and won. This is not new for me. My will is very strong for this. I have decided to do this. This is what I want, let’s go.”
The drop to light heavyweight will come as some relief to Pereira, having competed at middleweight for the majority of his career, and the Brazilian believes that with just a few adjustments to his diet, he can drop the remaining 10 pounds comfortably.
“I weigh 103 kg. [227 pounds],Ten [22 pounds] Kilo [to
cut]”I’m used to this,” he said. “In this category. [light
heavyweight] For me, that’s the best thing. There are 15 days until the match, so that’s a good time to adjust my diet.”
Pereira already defended his title against Prochazka by second-round knockout in their first bout at UFC 295 in November 2023. “BJP” then bounced back with a second-round TKO win over Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300.
