Not even being a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion will stop a person from getting profiled at the local Wal-Mart, apparently.
Alex Pereira is a former two-division GLORY kickboxing champion and former UFC Middleweight roost-ruler. His fights against Israel Adesanya over the past 12 months have generated some of the biggest moments for the sport (relive an epic one here). He’s also a very scary looking dude, which may be the reason a Wal-Mart security staff decided it needed to keep an eye on him as he perused the store shelves.
The video posted to Pereira’s Instagram stories quickly went viral on Twitter, where fans joked about how the employee had no idea who he was tailing.
Walmart dude doesn’t even know… pic.twitter.com/WtzFOIWtDG
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) June 24, 2023
Damn bro got racially profiled. He’s truly an American now
— Raji (@yaboyraji) June 24, 2023
“Wal-Mart dude doesn’t even know…” one person commented.
“Damn, bro got racially profiled,” another wrote. “He’s truly American now.”
Pereira isn’t exactly the sort to get too bent out of shape over a situation like this. Even after Adesanya mocked his son following their last fight, “Poatan” insisted there was no bad blood outside the cage. When the two met by happenstance at an airport, Pereira was cool but polite during the interaction.
We’d say Wal-Mart guy is lucky he didn’t try this with a Mike Perry or Nate Diaz.
Even though Pereira and Adesanya are 1-1 in UFC (3-1 across all combat sports), there’s no rubber match on the horizon for the two fighters. Instead, Pereira is headed up to Light Heavyweight where he’ll fight Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 on July 29, 2023. Adesanya, meanwhile, isn’t formally booked for his next title defense yet, but all signs point to him fighting at UFC 293 in Australia on Sept. 10, 2023.
To see who else is fighting on the upcoming UFC 291: “Poirier vs. Gaethje 2” fight card click here.