Just 11 fights into his MMA career, Alex Pereira became a two-division champion after he bludgeoned Jiri Prochazka with elbows to claim the vacant light heavyweight title in the UFC 295 main event.
He captured gold after punishing Prochazka with leg kicks early and then he dropped the former champion with a staggering left hook as they exchanged blows near the cage. As soon as Prochazka fell to his knees, he attempted to grab onto a takedown to survive a potential onslaught.
Pereira reacted by unleashing a barrage of punches and elbows to the side of Prochazka’s head, which caused him to go limp as he fell backwards to the canvas. The assault continued but referee Marc Goddard saw enough to stop the contest with the end coming at 4:08 in the second round.
Replays appeared to show Prochazka making it back to his feet rather quickly but Pereira felt like the stoppage was justified.
“I’m not surprised,” Pereira said afterwards. “After the first left hook and another one, he fell down to my legs. I don’t believe it was a bad stoppage. It’s a great honor for me.”
While there were definitely questions about Goddard’s call, Prochazka made no complaints when he addressed the loss.
“I think in that end, it was right,” Prochazka said. “I was out but I will never stop. Sh*t happens. For me, it’s a big learn, let’s work on that and be back stronger than ever. Thank you Alex. Thank you for this fight. I’ll be back.”
Prior to the finish, Pereira did most of his damage with a series of devastating kicks that had bruises and swelling forming on Prochazka’s lead leg. That led to a takedown from Prochazka, which is where he began hammering away at the Brazilian with a series of elbows on the ground.
To his credit, Pereira scrambled back to his feet before the first round ended up Prochazka’s wrestling appeared to be a potential equalizer to his opponent’s prowess on the feet.
Despite that success, Prochazka appeared ready to challenge Pereira on the feet at the start of the second round and he managed to catch the former GLORY champion with several punches that definitely landed clean. Prochazka continued to move forward with pressure but that backfired with Pereira stepping back and unloading a left hook that dropped the Czech fighter to the canvas.
That led to the finishing sequence with Pereira blasting Prochazka with the elbows that led to the stoppage to crown him as the ninth ever two-division champion in UFC history.
Following the win, Pereira quickly turned his attention to old foe Israel Adesanya with hopes to revive their rivalry — this time in the light heavyweight division.
“I’m not the type of guy to call people out but there’s a guy that back in the day [who] did some interviews and said I was a guy who was just going to stay in the bar,” Pereira said. “That motivated me. He rescued me from a bar to be here today. This guy said he just wants to come back and fight in 2027. I think he’s a very talented guy. It’s a waste of talent so I want to rescue him too, to come here and fight.
“I know that I’m not going to do what he did to me to and make me fight three times to fight him at middleweight. I know it’s a guy we have a lot of history. I want to make this fight happen. Adesanya, come to daddy.”
As much as he wants the Adesanya fight, Pereira also addressed former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill, who was sitting cage side anticipating the chance to reclaim the title he relinquished after suffering a torn Achilles’ tendon.
“I’m an active fighter, now an active champion,” Pereira said. “I know Jamahal is injured so I don’t know if he’ll be back in time because I want to fight real soon.”
