Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira might be a stone-faced killer inside the ring, carrying that intimidating aura along with a nuclear left hook but the Brazilian is every bit of a prankster. In fact, once the champ pranked his former girlfriend, Merle Christine with a proposal, and a few days later they broke up!
Earlier last year in December, Pereira was seen with Merle in Paris – the perfect romantic destination for new beginnings. However, for Poatan, neither the Eiffel Tower nor the near-perfect setting could furl up an emotion.
Alex Pereira 👀 💍 pic.twitter.com/8aqixgvaxG
— MMA UNCENSORED (@MMAUNCENSORED1) December 14, 2023
In a hilarious video that surfaced on the internet, the Brazilian was seen kneeling down as perhaps his friends were recording him walking up to Merle. He then slowly went down on a knee, gave her a ‘Poatan’ stone-face style stare-down, and then, got back up!
While the Brazilian’s cold sense of humor riled up quite a bunch of netizens, the fighter broke up with Merle days later on December 29.
Alex Pereira has apparently broken up with his girlfriend, Merle.
He’s unfollowed her on Instagram and deleted every post that included her.#UFC #MMATwitter pic.twitter.com/UJHw4JjRdT
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) December 29, 2023
Now, even though the prank itself might seem like a far-fetched idea to initiate a breakup, it’s still pretty cruel.
Pereira’s rocky relationship with Merle
Poatan’s link-up with Merle had fans excited but then the couple quickly decided to stop going out.
Pereira later revealed that Merle had gotten into the relationship with her without telling him that she was already married.
Despite what the Brazilian had to say about his girlfriend lying to him, Merle shared a story on Instagram, claiming that Pereira was just making up things.
She then claimed that mentioned the fact that both Pereira and she were married previously but she got separated before she got into a relationship with Alex.
Regardless, it’s all in the past now. Pereira seems to have moved on. In fact, he’s been keeping himself busy by defending his light heavyweight title every time a PPV needs saving in the UFC.
As a matter of fact, just a couple of days ago, he defeated #8 Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307 in what was unarguably his toughest fight to date in the light heavyweight division.
That said, Poatan still has unfinished business and claimed that he would not like to move up or down in weight classes and would want to defend his title.
This is of course great news for #1 contender Magomed Ankalaev, who has been trying to get his title fight against the Brazilian for months, only to be shunned on accusations of being ‘boring’.
