It’s been seven months since Alex Pereira last fought — a unanimous decision loss to Magomed Ankalaev, who took the light heavyweight belt off him. That’s the longest break “Poatan” has ever taken since arriving in the UFC in 2021, and he’s feeling great because of it.
In past interviews, Pereira has discussed being at 40% in his first fight against “Big Ank.” Now he’s rested and healed and promises a whole different level of performance in the UFC 320 rematch on October 4th.
“I definitely felt different
in that fight from basically any other fight,” Pereira told ESPN through a translator. “I don’t wanna take any credit away from him. He maybe had his own stuff going on, so that’s not something that that we wanna talk about too much.”
“But I can compare it to how I feel now,” he continued. “I had a great training camp, stayed in the US, focused, and no more trips. I can compare it to this fight, and I feel amazing.”
Leading into his UFC 313 loss, there were a lot of fans worried that Pereira’s non-stop traveling was affecting his training. He even made the trip to Australia for UFC 312 just to corner Sean Strickland and soak in the vibes. It all comes from a mindset of keeping busy, which we witnessed with his 11 fights over four years.
“That’s how I’ve always been, I’ve always been nonstop,” Pereira explained. “Ever since I was younger, I started working. I’ve never been unemployed. I’ve always been doing something. And I just felt like I needed to stay active. I needed to continue working.”
“But it was a cumulative effect. A lot of things started adding up. My body started feeling it. I started aging. Maybe these seven months between these two fights was the best thing that I needed to do.”
Pereira comes into UFC 320 knowing exactly what he needs to do to defeat Ankalaev. In fact, he claims he knew the moment he left the cage back in March without his belt.
“As soon as I stepped out of the Octagon that night, I knew the mistakes that I made,” Pereira said. “I knew what I needed to correct. You know, honestly, there’s not much to change. I just needed to heal my body. I just needed to take care of myself more, and and that’s where you’re gonna see in this fight.”
