UFC commentator shares one-word reaction after Alex Pereira reveals fighting through 2023 with a knee injury
Alex Pereira recently revealed that his 2023 campaign, which saw him capture UFC light heavyweight gold, was actually plagued by injury. He was carrying a knee injury at the time, but fought through nonetheless, drawing astonishment from veteran UFC commentator Jon Anik.
ESPN MMA took to Instagram to share Pereira's words on how compromised he was the year prior. 'Poatan' even cited specific instances of him fearing that his knee had given out, including during his training camp.
"I was able to fight with such bad conditions with my leg, and now that I have had the surgery and am 100 percent healthy, I want to fight all the time. The knee had come out of place and I had to stop training. We, as a camp, thought about canceling the fight but pushed through. During training, I had to stop to put the knee back in place. I didn't know if my knee was going to surrender or not."
Pereira discussed the discomfort during his first light heavyweight title fight with striker extraordinaire, Jiří Procházka.
"When I was throwing elbows on Jiří, after the knockout I did a front roll. The front roll wasn't me celebrating, it was me scared to post on the leg because it may have surrendered for good."
This drew Anik's attention, who popped up in the comment section of ESPN MMA's Instagram post with a one-word response in awe.
"Wow."
Now that 'Poatan' is as healthy as he's ever been, the MMA fandom will await his return at UFC 307 with bated breath. The 37-year-old will be defending his light heavyweight strap against the uber-violent Khalil Rountree Jr.
Alex Pereira also fought through injury in 2024
At UFC 300, Alex Pereira fractured his toe prior to his light heavyweight title defense against Jamahal Hill, who he knocked out with supreme ease. However, despite the injury, he accepted a short-notice bout and quick turnaround at UFC 303 against Jiří Procházka.
"I don't know if you guys know this yet, but I'll tell you. I just found out when I went up in the octagon because I saw him [Alex Pereira] messing around with his foot. He broke his toe two weeks ago and he fought tonight with a broken toe."
Check out Dana White's revelation about Alex Pereira at the UFC 300 post-fight press conference (5:29):
'Poatan' stepped into the octagon with the Czech samurai and authored his most dominant performance yet. He knocked Procházka down badly right at the buzzer in round one, before flattening him with a switch kick in round two to close out the show.