PFL prospect Alexei Pergande actually rebelled against joining TikTok after first learning about the video based social media app.
The now 24-year-old featherweight, who grew up as the son of a boxer from the Ukraine, just didn’t understand the purpose of it all and he wasn’t interested. While his then girlfriend, who is now his fiancée, tried to convince him to take a look at it, Pergande flat out said he had no desire to get drawn it.
But when she started gaining a massive amount of followers posting
content on TikTok, Pergande couldn’t help but take notice.
“At one point, I remember my fiancée, she was on TikTok posting silly videos and she had like 50,000 followers,” Pergande told MMA Fighting. “I’m like whoa, she has 50,000 followers just posting silly videos online?
“But back then, TikTok was a little bit different. It was for dances and all this stuff. I told her back then, you’ll never see me installing TikTok [on my phone]. I’m never getting TikTok in my life. That’s where I was at. I’m never getting that app. It’s so cringey, so bad, I’m not doing it.”
Over time, TikTok’s popularity exploded and the app now boasts around 1.59 billion active users worldwide. Pergande took notice and he finally decided to take the plunge to start his own account.
Pergande stuck to what he knew best, which was martial arts, but he had fun creating videos that varied from tips and tricks in the cage to sparring footage and even funny videos he made with friends, teammates and his fiancée. Before long, his account was getting some attention, which Pergande says was totally unexpected.
“TikTok started growing, I eventually got on there and I started playing around with a few videos,” Pergande explained. “I think one my videos got like 5,000 or 10,000 views and I was like whoa! That’s a lot of views. Back then I’m like I’m blowing up! I’m famous!”
More than anything, Pergande felt like he was providing insight into a sport that he absolutely loved but wasn’t all that present when it came to a TikTok audience.
That gave Pergande the opening he needed to start filling a necessary gap in the TikTok algorithm and his channel really started gaining momentum.
“I was looking and there wasn’t enough martial arts creators there,” Pergande said. “There wasn’t really anyone posting about it so why don’t I start? I started posting a little bit of my sparring clips and little things like that. Then a few of them caught some major, major traction. I just started gaining followers so quick. Then I was also inspiring people, too.
“I was making videos and doing what I enjoyed and building my personal brand but at the same time, I was helping this younger generation. I had so many kids and even older people reach out to me [and say] ‘you inspired me to start martial arts.’ For me, that was eye opening. That gave me the fuel to start posting more and start working on educational content and educating people about martial arts.”
@alexei_pergande Pain 😥 #fyp #mma #fighter #professional #pfl ♬ original sound – Clipse ✟
Pergande confessed that the people reaching out saying they decided to try martial arts because of him or got interested in the sport thanks to his videos really meant the most to him.
Considering he got involved in combat sports when he was still just a child, which included participating in 88 amateur boxing matches before turning his full attention to MMA, Pergande was happy that he started inspiring more people to follow in his footsteps.
“I think I’ve been on TikTok for three years, but I’ve gotten thousands of DM’s of people saying ‘I started martial arts because of you,’” Pergande revealed. “I still have people every time I go on TikTok live, I have people coming in and saying ‘I started jiu-jitsu for the first day, you inspired me, thank you so much.’ Just little things like that.
“Because I always preach how important it is to be able to defend yourself. You don’t have to do it competitively. It’s not something you have to make a career of but you have to be able to defend yourself and your family. That’s what I always preach about.”
What started out as a fun way to get his name out there and share his passion for MMA eventually grew to the kind of following that allowed Pergande to get involved in the TikTok creators program, which earns money for people making those viral videos.
“TikTok, I’ve actually been making a decent amount of money for the past [two months],” Pergande said. “They’ve been paying really well for the past two months and it’s been great. I’m just trying to stay consistent. It’s educating people, building my personal brand and also getting paid for it. What else do I need?
“I love to vary my content. Anything that’s MMA related, I’ll usually post on there. I’ll mess around with stupid little videos. I keep my content very broad. It attracts different fan bases.”
With his next fight scheduled on Thursday, Pergande is primarily focused on his next bout in the PFL. That said, the featherweight fighter hopes sharing his experiences on there not only helps supplement his income but he’s able to spread the word about martial arts and maybe even share some knowledge about what it’s like to make combat sports your career.
“These kids love it and the next generation coming up, I want them to grow up with some kind of knowledge of martial arts and the people that do want to make their career martial arts to not make the same mistakes I did,” Pergande said. “Because that’s also what I share on TikTok. Where I screwed up, where I went a little bit too hard on sparring, where I made this mistake, and I just talk about it.
“That younger generation, when they get into that same situation, they’re going to be a little bit more level headed about it and understand how to handle that situation.”
