‘Poatan’ arrived in the UFC back in 2021 where he made a statement on his Octagon debut to kick off a legendary run.
The light heavyweight champion has become a superstar since signing to the UFC, leading him up to UFC 313 on March 8 where Alex Pereira defends his title against Magomed Ankalaev.
The 205-pound titleholder debuted in the middleweight division before achieving dominance at the weight class above with Pereira even flirting with the idea of going back down to face Dricus Du Plessis.
Pereira’s UFC debut brought some injury issues that he was able to overcome to get off to a good start which steadily built to bigger and better things.
Though his UFC 268 opponent is no longer in the UFC, he’s still competing at a high level in Europe where he recently suffered a setback.
Alex Pereira’s former foe Andreas Michailidis apologizes after OKTAGON 67 loss
On November 6 at Madison Square Garden, Alex Pereira announced his arrival in the UFC by delivering a devastating flying knee knockout.
‘Poatan’ faced Greece’s Andreas Michailidis who got off to a good start in the fight by winning the first round having gone 1-1 in his previous Octagon appearances.
Unfortunately for him, the fight became known for it’s fight-ending moment where Pereira locked in the first of many clips for his UFC highlight reel.
Michailidis would go on to fight one more time in the UFC before departing the promotion and signing with European promotion OKTAGON.
He has fought six times since joining in 2023, going 3-3 with his latest outing coming at OKTAGON 67 this past weekend where he competed in the first round of their middleweight Tipsport Gamechanger tournament.
Michailidis was submitted in the Czech Republic by South Africa’s Mark Hulme who appeared on last year’s season of The Ultimate Fighter and is a training partner of Dricus Du Plessis.
In an Instagram post after the defeat, he said that he became distracted in the fight following a thumb injury which also meant that he couldn’t defend against the guillotine choke.
“Unfortunately, my match at OKTAGON 67 did not go well, it was the worst performance I have done. Everything started well at first and was going according to our strategy until in an exchange of blows at about 1:30 of the first round I broke my thumb, this clouded my mind as soon as I realized it.
“I miscalculated my kick and received a blow that stunned me and ended up receiving a choke that I could not defend with my hit hand. Sorry for those who disappointed with my appearance, I will fix my hand and come back stronger, thank you for your support!!!”
Alex Pereira’s flying knee knockout changed everything
For the first round of Alex Pereira’s UFC 268 debut, it looked like things weren’t going to work out for the former kickboxing great.
He was able to get back to his feet after being taken down early on in the round but for the remainder of the first, Andreas Michailidis held ‘Poatan’ against the side of the cage with the referee even separating them at one point due to a lack of action.
In what some feared would be a massively underwhelming debut and proof that Pereira couldn’t hang in the MMA with limited experience, he closed the show before giving his opponent another opportunity to grab hold of him.
We still had no idea quite how successful or huge Pereira would go on to become after a worrying debut turned into a Hall of Fame career within the space of a few years.