Chama -- Alex Pereira
Alex “Poaton” Pereira has been defeated for the second time in his historical UFC reign. Alex fell short to the Russian fighter Magomed Ankalaev. Let's break down a very controversial championship bout between Pereira and Ankalaev.
The story of Alex Pereira might be one of the fastest and most successful rises to fame. Alex comes from the native of São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, where he would drop out of middle school to be an assistant at a tire shop. Alex would get hooked on alcohol as he got older which led him to become weak Alex Pereira says. This would lead him to his kickboxing career where Alex Pereira would dominate the combat sport. Alex would win two championship belts in GLORY kickboxing. Alex would later join the UFC after a famous mixed-martial artist, Israel Adesanya called out Alex in an interview saying “he’s going to be at some pub talking sh*t about, ‘I beat that guy one time.’” This would make Alex join the UFC just to beat Izzy in mixed martial arts.
Alex hit the UFC hard with his debut in 2021, squaring off against Andreas Michailidis, he finished the fight 18 seconds into the 2nd round with a KO. During his next four fights, he fought some great fighters. Some Big names in the UFC include Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland, and Jiří Procházka. All of them have held a championship belt at some point in their career. Going into Alex’s latest fight against Magomed Ankalaev, he was 12-1. Losing only to who he considers his rival, Israel Adesanya, in 2023 during UFC 287. Magomed Ankalaev is a pure example of the rise of Russian/ Muslim fighters. He, along with others such as Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Umar Nurmagomedov have taken the UFC by storm. Magomed Ankalaev himself has 22 fights under his belt now. He’s been in the UFC since 2018 where he took his first, and only loss until his last battle against Paul Craig.
Heading into a stacked UFC313 card, Alex was the betting favorite. Alex is a fan favorite in the UFC. Alex is loved by millions because of his unique fighting style, heritage, and most importantly his incredible knockouts. Ankalaev on the other hand, is seen as a boring fighter by the average fan. Ankalaev is a well-rounded fighter who can fight impressively on both the stand-up and ground game.
UFC313 was full of great finishes like Mauricio Ruffy’s spinning wheel kick on King Green that resulted in him going face-first on the mat. After a few more main card fights, it was time for Alex and Magomed to duke it out in the octagon. Alex started with a great first round that had a mixture of leg kicks and body shots that hurt Ankalaev early. However, Ankalaev had a great second round as he was able to stun Alex at the end of the round. Round three didn’t have much action but yet round three made the fight controversial. Round four was mostly Ankalaev holding Alex to the cage which is considered control time which helped Magomed. The fight made it to the fifth and final championship round. Alex’s corner told him that he had to get a finish in this round to secure a fourth championship title defense, meanwhile, Ankalaev’s corner told Magomed to stay calm and keep doing what he was doing all fight. After a close fifth round, the scorecards were in, which determined the decision. Magomed Ankalaev had done the impossible versus Alex Pereira by defeating him by a unanimous decision. The media and fans around the world were in shock and also angered by the judge's scorecards. Ankalaev shot 0/12 on takedown attempts on Alex Pereira but had over five minutes of total control time when holding him up against the cage. Controversial or not, Alex had lost his third fight in mixed martial arts and was no longer the champion of the light heavyweight division.
With Alex nearing the end of his career at age 37, he doesn't have a lot of time to build his legacy even higher. This loss will deeply affect how he is remembered. There is no doubt Pereira is a fan favorite, he’s a great fighter through and through. But, during his last fight, he looked very off. Could this be the decline of his career? The oldest fighter, Andrei Arlovski, is 44 years old but still fighting. The thing is, you only get so many fights in a year. Alex has been fighting 2-3 fights a year since the start of his career. I could see Alex fighting well into his 40’s, but he won't be at the top of his game. Could he get his belt back? No doubt! But will he before age catches up to him is the question.
Is this the end of Alex “Poaton” Pereira? I think Alex should fight Jiří Procházka again next. He’s already knocked out Jiří twice in his short mixed martial arts career, and I think if he would knock him out again he would build confidence back up to compete for the title again. I also think the fans need to see an Alex vs Jon Jones fight soon, two insanely good heavyweights that make heavyweight fights fun to watch, it would be a great fight. Chama.
