Michel Pereira enters UFC Houston looking to turn the page following a stretch of inconsistency that has kept him from capitalizing on his potential. Set to face Zach Reese on Saturday night, the Brazilian standout says a revamped approach behind the scenes has him prepared to reintroduce a more dangerous version of himself on fight night.
“I changed a lot of things on my training. I changed everything about my camp,” Pereira told reporters including Cageside Press through a translator on Wednesday.
“I’m a different person now I can tell you that. Get ready for the Michel Pereira that everybody knows. A guy that’s going to be very aggressive and ready to put on a show on Saturday.”
Pereira (31-14) admitted the matchup came with an added layer of familiarity given their shared time under the same roof earlier in their careers. While the situation initially gave him pause, he understands it’s part of the sport when fighters come from large, well-known camps.
“When I saw the opponent I didn’t want to fight him from having been a teammate at one point. He actually chose to do his camp here in Texas so he got off of that because we both trained at Xtreme (Couture) for a while,” he said.
“As Mick (Maynard) has always said that is going to happen when you actually have big teams. The main thing is that it happened that way, it’s back to life, and we put in the work. Both of us are going to put on a show.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Michel Pereira above. He faces Zach Reese at UFC Houston on Saturday night.
