“I studied him a lot. I knew it was going to be a tough fight.”
Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira (@AlexPereiraUFC) speaks on the challenges he encountered during his third successful title defense.
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Alex Pereira needs a vacation to heal up from some nagging injuries.
Pereira (12-2) defended his light heavyweight title for the third time by dispatching Khalil Rountree (13-6) in the main event at UFC 307 on Saturday. By staving off three challengers in the span of 175 days, Pereira broke Ronda Rousey’s record (189 days) for the quickest time between three straight defenses. After a tough camp and some reaggravated injuries, the most active champion on the roster currently is ready to take some rest after his win over “The War Horse.”
In addition to a much-needed vacation, Pereira also plans on travelling around the world during his time off. The Brazilian discussed his upcoming break following his UFC win:
“I think I earned and deserve some rest after this,” Pereira remarked. “I’m not gonna say what, but my team and the organization know this was one of the hardest camps for me to do due to things happening throughout the camp… Now I think I want to rest my body. I got some trips to go, I’m going to Mexico, I’m going to Malta, I’m going to Korea. And then I’m gonna take some time in Bali.”
Pereira further divulged details of his gruelling camp marred by multiple issues. Apart from struggling to obtain a visa, the light heavyweight champ also suffered a nasty fever and dealt with numerous resurfacing injuries leading up to the main attraction. Pereira said in the post-fight media scrum:
“The fight was really tough,” “Poatan” admitted. “But only my team really knows how tough this camp was. I went through a lot of stuff that nobody really knows about. So, I was in Brazil a month ago. I had some problems with my visa. I was going to the consulate every single day, trying to see if my passport was ready to be picked up. Finally made it back to the US, spent about a week in Connecticut. Been here for three weeks, in that meantime I was on antibiotics, I had [a] fever, I had a bad [sore] throat and lot of things happened. Also going back, when I was in Brazil, I hurt my rib. It was an injury I had about a year ago and it came back… Also, the ligament in my toe that was hurt for UFC 300, that came back. So, it was a lot of things I went through in this camp.”
