Knockout artist Khaos Williams is feeling confident ahead of Saturday’s clash with Michel Pereira.
It’s safe to say that 11-1 Khaos Williams has had no trouble finding his opponents’ chins inside the Octagon thus far in his young UFC career. Last time out the 26-year-old crushed Abdul Razak Alhassan with a walk-off KO in just 30 seconds. Before that, in his UFC debut, he took 27 seconds to stop Alex Morono.
The impressive welterweight is now scheduled to face another fighter who has left a mark with his UFC performances: Michel Pereira. Those two duel at this weekend’s UFC Vegas 17: Thompson vs. Neal.
Ahead of his third UFC contest Williams spoke with Cole Shelton of bjpenn.com. The Detroiter said he expected to turn the flashy striker Pereira into a wrestler come Saturday night.
“I feel like once he feels my power and once I touch that chin he will shoot,” said Williams. “His coaches will tell him, too. That won’t worry me. You can have a plan A, B, C but it’s not going to work. I see me touching his chin, dropping him, either knocking him out or getting the TKO. Maybe we go the distance and I will outstrike him. I will not be outworked.”
Even though he’s supremely confident of getting his hand raised on Saturday, Williams did show some respect for Pereira’s unorthodox skills.
“He is a pretty tough dude, he a showman, and I will be ready. It will be another W for me. God didn’t bring me this far to drop me off here. I’ve been working, I’m in shape.”
When he further touched on Pereira’s ‘showman’ antics, which include but are not limited to cartwheels, back flips and capoeira tricks, Williams said he didn’t see the point in specifically training to defend against such a bizarre arsenal of strikes.
“Certain things like that you can’t prepare,” he said. “You can’t prepare for unpredictable stuff. I will just be me, be sharp, and be able to go 15 minutes,” Williams explained. “This is a fight and one thing about me, I don’t play. You make a mistake with me you have to pay.”
Williams joined the UFC in 2020. Prior to that he fought with the WXC, Total Warrior Combat and KOTC promotions, earning a 9-1 record before signing with ZUFFA.
Pereira has been with the big promotion since 2019. He made a successful debut opposite Danny Roberts, winning that fight with a sensational flying knee. The Brazilian then lost back to back contests to Tristan Connelly (by unanimous decision) and Diego Sanchez (by DQ).
Last time out he schooled Zelim Imadaev on route to a rear naked choke win.