Before the action heads to Abu Dhabi next week for UFC 308, the UFC octagon made a quick stop at its Apex Facility in Enterprise, Vegas for a middleweight Fight Night ringer. Surging middleweight prospect, Anthony Hernandez delivered a dominant performance against Michel Pereira, delivering a fifth-round KO thus earning a generous payday.
As per Marca.com, ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez is expected to take home a sum more than this previous outing in the UFC. Previously, the fighter snagged $132,000 for his victory at UFC 298 in February of this year against Russian Roman Kopylov.
And his latest R5 KO got him an additional $50k courtesy of Dana White.
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As for his opponent, Pereira, the flamboyant Brazilian who was coming of off eight wins would mostly bag an expected sum of $200,000, given this was his last earning purse Ihor Potieria at UFC 301.
While Saturday evening got the flamboyant Brazilian a decent payday, Hernandez ended his blistering run with a brutal last-round KO making a statement.
Hernandez KOs Pereira in R5
Coming into the fight Anthony Hernandez had five wins including the ones over Roman Kopylov and Edmen Shahbazyan. On the other hand, his opponent, the #14 ranked Michel Pereira boasted a streak of eight consecutive wins but once their five-round scrap ended, ‘Fluffy’ left the octagon with one more in the W column.
In fact, he ended the Brazilian’s blitz with a vicious last-round KO, demolishing the flamboyant fighter with brutal ground and pound.
Round 1 started with Pereira bombing away heavy shots on Hernandez. While a quick body shot and a kick to the midsection caught the American’s attention, he came right back with shots of his own all while maintaining composure.
Nevertheless, the Brazilian went on the offensive, catching his opponent with some heavy knees against the cage. But Hernandez weathered the storm and got in a perfectly timed spinning elbow before taking him down.
In the second round, the 31-year-old American got creative with strikes, landing another spinning elbow, this time to Pereira’s knee. In fact, he was successfully mixing his strikes, catching the Brazilian on multiple occasions.
However, attempts to take him down were unsuccessful. Fortunately, for him, Pereira’s miscalculation got him on top of the Brazilian, and from that point on, he rained down some heavy shots.
Hernandez then upped the pace, pressuring the veteran with relentless takedowns and submission attempts. At this point, it’s Hernandez’s technique against Pereira’s heart. Round 4 was pretty much the same but the point to be noted here was the American attempted 24 takedowns in the fight and showed no signs of slowing down.
Maintaining top position in the last round, ‘Fluffy’ came down with more strikes to which Pereira had no answer. Seeing the Brazilian curl up, helpless, unable to defend himself, the referee jumped in when it was 2.22 seconds into the final frame and separated the men, thus awarding the win to Hernandez.
