Plinio Cruz explains what it was like to get “Poatan” ready for a fight in two weeks and how they mentally prepared their fighter for UFC 303.
Alex Pereira did it again, stepping up on short notice to save another massive Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) card. From UFC 295 to UFC 300 to UFC 303, when UFC needs a main event, it calls “Poatan.”
Even if he has broken toes and it’s on two weeks notice.
For Pereira’s coach and translator, Plinio Cruz, the decision to fight was an easy one. He knew his pupil was ready, and his main job was maintaining the confidence and mindset of “Poatan” through International Fight Week leading into his UFC 303 fight with Jiri Prochazka (which he’d win by second round knockout).
“The way that we drew the plan to come to this fight week was to not feel too responsible for this thing,” Cruz explained on The MMA Hour. “Like, when the fight was booked, he looked at me and said, ‘Okay, how are you gonna do this?’ I say, ‘This time, we’re not gonna get no Airbnb. We’re not gonna get a big house. We’re not gonna bring a whole entourage. It’s gonna be me, you, Glover, the corners, and the boys.’
“‘We’re gonna stay in the fighter’s hotel, we’re gonna go over there like we’re gonna fight on the undercard,” he added. “We’re gonna win this fight, go back home.’
“I told him with these exact words,” he continued. “Sometimes, you have enough time to look at the blueprint of the bank, check the cameras, and plan a bank robbery. Or sometimes, you just give your your friends a gun, tell them to hop in the car, and let’s just go rob a bank together.”
Pereira was extremely relaxed coming into this fight — to the point where cameras caught him and his team dancing in the locker room before their fight. Cruz credits this to everyone knowing they were properly prepared.
“Once you’re confident that you did everything right, even though it was two weeks, he did not slack. He was training. And throughout fight week, since the fight was announced in Australia until the fight, he started to really get into becoming more experienced, like as the world champion.”
The champ getting loose before #UFC303 pic.twitter.com/pKwMfu93QT
— UFC (@ufc) June 30, 2024
“He’s not arrogant, but it’s a level of confidence and the positive vibe that we build around us,” Cruz explained. “We are a small team, but we have a big circle of power. You know what I mean? We are a strong circle of power, so the bond, I think, makes everything like that.”
So, what’s next for Pereira, according to his coach?
“Take a break, enjoy the summer,” he said. “Because right now, if you see, it’s not only two fights. Since November, he fought three times already. So that’s starting [to wear] on the body. And I said, ‘Bro, just enjoy being a world champion for a little bit. Let’s not rush. Let’s train. Let’s keep training.’”
But, as we’ve noted before, a “Poatan” break isn’t all that long.
“Alex Pereira is definitely fighting in the second semester of 2024,” Cruz declared. “100 percent.”
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