This Saturday at UFC 299, Michel Pereira scored another extremely impressive first-round finish, submitting Michal Oleksiejczuk with a rear-naked choke.
Before his fight at UFC 299, the Brazilian entertained the fans with a pre-fight choreographed dance during his walkout, which is something he admitted he’s wanted to do since his first UFC fight, but the promotion never approved it.
After his win, he told the media at the UFC 299 post-fight scrum, that he was really excited that he ‘finally’ got it approved.
“I’ve always wanted to do that dance ever since my first fight, but they would never approve it, finally they approved it and they would let me do it tonight.” Pereira said.
Throughout his 10-fight UFC tenure, ‘Demolidor’ has fought the large majority of it at 170lbs, but after missing weight prior to a scheduled fight with Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, he finally made the move up to 185lbs.
Since then he has won both his middleweight fights, with him likely now sitting on the edge of the top 15 rankings. After his win over Oleksiejczuk, Pereira talked about how comfortable he is feeling, fighting at his more natural weight.
“I like this division, I feel much more comfortable, of course, I suffer a lot for a little bit to make weight but a lot less (than welterweight) so it’s much better for me.”
What Michel Pereira wants next following UFC 299 win
The 30-year-old admitted that this was the penultimate fight on his existing contract, so it was important he picked up another impressive win to take into the contract renewal negotiations.
With UFC 301 taking place in Brazil, Pereira wants to put the date May 4th in his diary, to fight in his home country.
“It was a really important fight in my career, there’s going to be a contract renewal so it was really important for me to win tonight.
“I really want to fight in Brazil, there’s obviously going to be a fight there now (UFC 301) and I’ve always wanted to fight there and feel the energy of the crowd so that’s really what I want to do.”
UFC 301 is yet to have a main event booked, and there has been a lot of Brazilian talent booked around the date. With Pereira taking no damage and getting the fight done quickly, the UFC may look to give him a short turnaround.