Pereira knows how to fight, and he knows how to swap a tire off a rim with nothing more than a hammer and metal rod.
Alex Pereira has had a wild ride to the top of the UFC, but he hasn’t forgotten his roots.
As a youth he dropped out of school at 12 to work in a tire repair shop in Brazil and spent years of his life doing back breaking auto work and slipping into alcoholism. Kickboxing led him away from drinking and poverty — he went pro in 2013 and was a Glory champion by 2017. In 2020 he put his full efforts towards MMA, and by 2022 he’d won his first UFC title.
Now he’s the UFC light heavyweight champion … but the dude still knows how to wrangle a quick rim job.
Alex Pereira returned to the tire repair shop he used to work at in Brazil
IG / @AlexPereiraUFC #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/8U6rwUxMut
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) August 25, 2024
In a new video shared through his Instagram stories, “Poatan” returned to Villa Nova Borracharia in Sao Paulo where he used to work. He didn’t hesitate to step in and get his hands dirty, swapping some tires off their rims with the less than optimal tools at hand.
Alex Pereira’s next task in the cage will be a light heavyweight title defense against Khalil Rountree Jr. in the main event of UFC 307 this October 5th in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s a bit of an odd opponent given Rountree is ranked No. 8 at 205, and No. 2 ranked Magomed Ankalaev is still waiting for his shot. In a recent interview on his YouTube channel, Pereira put the blame for that solely on Ankalaev.
“I’ve always wanted to fight against Ankalaev and I’ve made it clear,” he said “But Ankalaev didn’t want to fight me. I don’t know the reason, if it was the location, if he didn’t want to fight.”
Mfs on Reddit found Alex Pereira on Google Maps working at a tire shop
12 years later he’s the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. pic.twitter.com/Y5pXOJBj22
— notNotorious (@Notori6us) November 15, 2023
“He isn’t the champion, he can’t pick anything,” Pereira continued. “[UFC 307] is the opportunity that showed up and he didn’t want it. He has his reasoning, I don’t know what it is. But I came here to tell you I’m not scared of anyone.”
“Everyone knows my history and everything I’ve done, not only in MMA, but in kickboxing as well. It’s obvious that I want to fight this guy. I think he has made things difficult, but we’ll meet eventually.”