There was nothing that could stop Alex Pereira from leaving UFC 300 still holding the light heavyweight title.
The former Glory Kickboxing champion suffered a broken pinky finger a few weeks before his bout with Jamahal Hill, but brushed off a shot in the groin moments later to open Saturday’s headliner at T-Mobile. He scored a devastating knockout victory in the opening 3 minutes and 14 seconds. arena in las vegas.
UFC CEO Dana White revealed Pereira’s injury in Saturday’s post-fight press conference, but it wasn’t something that “Poitin” planned to affect his performance.
“It happened in the last few weeks,” Pereira said. “It wasn’t something I was going to walk away from fighting. I had to push through. I had to slow down my training in the middle of camp, so I just had to push through.”
After a cautious start to the match between both light heavyweights, Hill appeared to deliver a kick to his opponent’s groin as referee Herb Dean intervened and attempted to pause the bout. Instead, Pereira stopped the referee by extending his arm and signaled that it was okay to continue. Moments later, he floored Hill with a left hook and sealed the victory with a flurry of follow-up punches on the canvas.
“I was starting to find my distance,” Pereira said. “He started using his leg kicks from the beginning to get a sense of distance. He’s a southpaw, so it’s a little difficult.
“My game plan was to start throwing hands after that, so he threw a groin shot, but it didn’t hurt that much, so I just kept pushing so I didn’t have to reset the distance. Let’s take advantage of this moment.”
After the match was abandoned, Pereira taunted his fallen opponent. The celebration came in response to a pre-match confrontation in which Hill smashed Pereira’s stone head, which became one of his trademarks.
“I talked to my team before and I would like to fight five rounds, but if I get knocked out, that’s what I would do,” Pereira said. “His attitude wasn’t very good. He started showing respect during the week and then did the same thing during press conferences and weigh-ins, so honestly that’s all I can do for him. was.”
In his post-fight interview, Pereira hinted that he would be interested in potentially moving to heavyweight and competing at UFC 301 on May 4 in Rio de Janeiro. That prompted interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall to post a photo of himself looming in the background of him during a fight. Pereira’s strike. However, when the Brazilian was asked about potential opponents in the heavyweight division, he did not take the bait.
“I said I want to fight at heavyweight, but I’m not going to reveal my name here,” Pereira said. “I told them I wanted to fight at heavyweight, so I don’t care who they pick.”
Coach White, on the other hand, was not too keen on Pereira moving up to another division in the near future.
“Considering him moving up to heavyweight,
[Jon] Jones, you have Aspinall. Heavyweight is tricky,” White said. “I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do for him. Tonight he looked very good in his division. He might want to stay there for a little while. ”
