“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.Results, Interviews & More ➡️: https://t.co/ZYfGe6jwVs
— UFC News (@UFCNews)
October 6, 2024
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.”