Alex Pereira wasn’t expecting to be throwing high kicks in his UFC 303 title fight until he saw Prochazka warming up in a social media clip.
We’ve heard of fighters taking inspiration for a particular strike from either their opponent’s fight tape or training footage, but adding a new weapon to the arsenal after seeing a warm-up video posted online is truly something special.
Alex Pereira knocks out Jiri Prochazka to retain LHW title
A definitive end to an iconic rivalry; one of the best pre-fight staredowns in UFC history, and a viral head kick decapitation of a former light heavyweight king – UFC 303 couldn’t have gone much better for Alex Pereira.
After dropping Jiri Prochazka with a devastating hook just seconds before the first round came to an end, Pereira chose not to take his foot off the gas. Instead, choosing to place it right on the head of BJP in a picture-perfect high kick to send him crashing to the canvas just seconds into the second.
A superb finish from a truly remarkable fighter, Alex Pereira apparently implemented said high kick after watching and spotting a key opening from a clip of Prochazka warming up in the back.
Alex Pereira added head kick to gameplan after social media clip
Whilst Alex Pereira is indeed a world champion kickboxer with an outstanding array of high kicks, even ‘Poatan’ himself wasn’t expecting to be throwing out such techniques in his UFC 303 title rematch with Jiri Prochazka… At first.
That’s because it turns out that Pereira and his team specifically drilled the head kick that ultimately saw him retain the light heavyweight championship after a video clip was shared online of Prochazka warming up in the locker room.
Speaking at the post-fight press conference, Pereira revealed that it was only after his coaches showed him the video of Prochazka warming up in the locker room that they thought about the head kick.
“No [it wasn’t part of the gameplan], actually I was in the locker room talking to Plinio [Cruz] my coach, and he showed me the video of Jiri warming up and I saw that he was trying to counter the calf kick.”
What’s even more amazing is that it was the two-time UFC champion himself who spotted that there was a problem with Jiri’s calf kick defense, one that would consequently leave an opening for such a viral KO finish.
“But I noticed that he was doing the wrong timing, and his timing wasn’t good – I saw he was too focused on avoiding the calf kick, so he was leaving his hands down and leaving the head exposed. So, I told him [Cruz], I’m going to explore the high kick.”
Cruz also expanded on unusual pre-fight scoop when speaking to Full Send MMA following the UFC 303 main event coming to a dramatic close; simply noting that “Yeah man, be careful what you post before your fight.
“We were browsing on Instagram and had just seen somebody posted a video of us dancing in the warmup and Jiri getting ready, the way he was doing- what he assumed what was the correct block for the calf kicks was wrong.
“I showed that to Alex and he goes, ‘When he’s doing this, he’s putting his hands down, I’m going to kick this guy in the head again.’”
Whilst Pereira did appear open to a move up to heavyweight in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, he later noted that he still has more opponents at light heavyweight to take care of.
“I don’t know what’s the limit, I’m going to be training, I’m going to be ready, and I’m going to be taking the opportunities… I think I still have challenges [at light heavyweight], I want to keep defending my belt, I want to keep training and showing results.”
Following his second-round demolition of Prochazka, both Magomed Ankalaev and Jan Blachowicz raised their hands as potential next title challengers for Poatan.