Alex Pereira has had a wild journey to the highest of the UFC, however he hasn’t forgotten his roots.
As a youth he dropped out of college at 12 to work in a tire restore store in Brazil and spent years of his life doing again breaking auto work and slipping into alcoholism. Kickboxing led him away from consuming and poverty — he went professional in 2013 and was a Glory champion by 2017. In 2020 he put his full efforts in direction of MMA, and by 2022 he’d gained his first UFC title.
Now he’s the UFC mild heavyweight champion … however the dude nonetheless is aware of tips on how to wrangle a fast rim job.
In a brand new video shared by his Instagram tales, “Poatan” returned to Villa Nova Borracharia in Sao Paulo the place he used to work. He didn’t hesitate to step in and get his fingers soiled, swapping some tires off their rims with the lower than optimum instruments at hand.
Alex Pereira’s subsequent job within the cage shall be a lightweight heavyweight title protection towards Khalil Rountree Jr. in the principle occasion of UFC 307 this October fifth in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah. It’s a little bit of an odd opponent given Rountree is ranked No. 8 at 205, and No. 2 ranked Magomed Ankalaev remains to be ready for his shot. In a latest interview on his YouTube channel, Pereira put the blame for that solely on Ankalaev.
“I’ve all the time needed to combat towards Ankalaev and I’ve made it clear,” he mentioned “However Ankalaev didn’t wish to combat me. I don’t know the explanation, if it was the situation, if he didn’t wish to combat.”
“He isn’t the champion, he can’t choose something,” Pereira continued. “[UFC 307] is the chance that confirmed up and he didn’t need it. He has his reasoning, I don’t know what it’s. However I got here right here to inform you I’m not terrified of anybody.”
“Everybody is aware of my historical past and the whole lot I’ve achieved, not solely in MMA, however in kickboxing as properly. It’s apparent that I wish to combat this man. I feel he has made issues tough, however we’ll meet finally.”
