Alex Pereira takes on Jiri Prochazka in a week’s time for the undisputed light heavyweight title at UFC 295. This will be the first title fight at 205-pounds for Pereira who has previously been fighting at 185-pounds ever since he made his UFC debut. ‘Poatan’ signed with the UFC as a highly rated, multiple-time kickboxing world champion. He has since gone to live up to all the hype he had garnered. In a week’s time, Pereira has the chance to establish himself as a two-weight division world champion in the UFC, a feat that is extremely hard to achieve.
However, being a multiple-weight division world champion is not something new to ‘Poatan’. He has had an extremely illustrious career in kickboxing and won world championships across multiple weight classes. Despite all the glory in kickboxing, Pereira’s career was not one without roadblocks. Let’s take a closer look at some of the losses Pereira suffered in his kickboxing career.
The first armature kickboxing loss for Pereira came pretty early on in his career in 2013. His first loss in professional kickboxing was against Jason Wilnis in 2012. He has since gone on to lose six more times. What is interesting to note is that Pereira has never lost to a fighter twice except Jason Wilnis against whom he lost twice. And in most cases, he secured a win in a rematch against fighters who beat him. ‘Poatan’ walked away from kickboxing with a record of 33 wins and 7 losses.
The Brazilian fighter is all set to main event UFC 295 on 11 November, 2023 at MSG in New York, USA.
A closer look at Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka
Due to Jon Jones’ injury, Prochazka and Pereira will now be the main event at UFC 295 this weekend. The fight promises to be an extremely interesting one between two of the most dangerous and unorthodox strikers in the promotion. Prochazka with record 29-3-1, is on a 13-fight win streak. Pereira on the other hand, with a record 8-2-0, just secured an impressive win over Jan Błachowicz. The victory over the former champion helped him bounce back into the win column after the loss to Israel Adesanya.
Going into the fight, there is a consensus among fans and pundits alike that this fight will not go the distance. On paper, there is not much that separates the two men when it comes to the statistics. ‘Poatan’ has a reach of 79 inches, on the other hand, Prochazka has a one-inch reach advantage over the Brazilian.
Given that it is his second match at light heavyweight, Pereira is inexperienced at the weight class compared to his opponent. It will be interesting to see if Prochazka utilizes any grappling during the fight to slow down ‘Poatan’. Regardless of what routes both fighters take, this promises to be an extremely interesting and evenly poised fight between two of the most dangerous fighters in the UFC.
