Salt Lake City – UFC light heavyweight Alex Pereira faced a tough road to get to his UFC 307 title defense against Khalil Rountree Jr. on Saturday night that may eclipse even the victory he earned in the fight.
“The fight was really tough, but only my team really knows how tough this camp was. I went through a lot of stuff that nobody really knows about,” Pereira told reporters including Cageside Press through a translator at his post-fight scrum.
“I was in Brazil over a month ago. I had some problems with my visa. I was going over to the consulate every single day trying to see if my passport was ready to be picked up. Finally made it back to the U.S., spent about a week in Connecticut, been in here for three weeks.”
Pereira (12-2) didn’t just have visa issues to deal with just to get to the fight. A throat issue resulted in ‘Poatan’ having to be on anti-biotics not once, but twice leading into the fight.
“In that meantime I was on antibiotics. I had fever, I had a bad throat, and a lot of things happened. When I was in Brazil I hurt my rib, it was an injury that I had about a year ago, and it came back,” he said.
“Also the ligament in my toe that was hurt for UFC 300, that came back, so there’s a lot of things that I went through in this camp. It was a tough fight, but it was a tough lead up to this fight. Actually feel really proud of myself at this moment.”
The light heavyweight champion said he’d be releasing a video showing how sick he really was, if he won. Pereira said that video would be released at some point soon.
After putting on four title defenses in 11-months Pereira seems set to take a break from octagon.
“It’s a lot. There is a limit. I want to push myself as much as I can. I’m 37 and I want to take advantage of time, but I do need to take a break,” he said.
“I have some commitments in Mexico, in Korea, and Malta. I need to take some time off, but I’m going to be training.”
Pereira has put together an impressive resume, and a big impact on the sport, in such a short time. The light heavyweight reflected on the journey that has gotten him to this point.
“I’m really proud of all of that. It’s a testament to how, when you keep your discipline and you keep believing in yourself, and doing everything correctly. I’ve been having the same discipline since I was an amateur. At a time when we didn’t know what we were going to get,” he told Cageside Press.
“What money you’re going to make (and) how far you’re going to go. Now here I am and in this glamour in the UFC and making money with all these people around. People lend me their nice cars to drive, people want to take me out to dinner, I’m proud of how far I’ve come.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira above.
