UFC middleweight Michel Pereira is nothing if not a unique fighter, with an original style and a personality to match.
That was on full display during the UFC Kansas City media day this week, with Pereira (31-12, 2NC) returning to face Abus Magomedov this Saturday. Magomedov had admitted earlier in the day that it was extremely difficult to prepare for “Demolidor’s” style, a sentiment Pereira readily agreed to.
“My style is different, it’s very difficult to predict my style. It’s very difficult to train to what I can bring,” said Pereira. “I’m very well trained, I’m very prepared, I’m very ready to fight him.”
From there, the entire conversation essentially shifted to talk of a bull roping (which sounds similar to calf roping) documentary Pereira had been the focus of in his native Brazil.
“I want to be more active throughout the year, I want to fight more. The only reason I wasn’t as active is I was shooting a documentary back in Brazil,” he revealed, going on to explain that the UFC was involved in the film. “Long Story Short,” which the doc is titled, “is what the UFC did back in Brazil,” he stated.
“It’s actually me just catching, like some PBR-looking stuff. We have something that’s called basically catch the ox, catch the bull. You basically go after it, like in a competition PBR [Professional Bull Riding] style, almost like rodeo-like. They see us preparing for that activity, the festival that we do there. It’s something that we came up with. You’re going to see what it’s like when we hang out together and go after cows and stuff.”
Pereira later revealed that “it’s a three stage competition, you go in pairs, and you try to take it [the bull] down,” while starting out on horseback. “It’s crazy my friend, it’s crazy. Very different.”
Pereira admitted that, given his fighting career, some of his team members had encouraged him to ease off what is no doubt a dangerous hobby.
“I’m a different guy, and I like to do different things. And I like that, it’s my life, it’s what I like to do. It’s a rush, it’s a cool thing that I like to do. It gives me this rush of adrenaline,” he explained. “I feel alive when I’m doing that. I’ll tell you what, I feel more adrenaline when I do that than in the octagon. This whole thing about catching the bull is something that keeps me alive. It’s my life, and I’m a different guy, I like to do different things. It keeps me alive, I like to do these things, so they’re not going to stop me. I’m going to continue to do it.”
Watch Michel Pereira’s full UFC Kansas City media day appearance above.
