Alex Pereira has spent the past 12 years putting people to sleep in kickboxing, boxing and MMA.
The Brazilian fan favorite brutally knocked out Sean Strickland to earn a middleweight title shot in 2022.
‘Poatan’ has done the same thing to Jiri Prochazka, Jamahal Hill, and Khalil Rountree since moving up to light heavyweight and picking up the title he’ll defend against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 on March 8.
However, Alex Pereira‘s scariest MMA KO came just before he was snapped up by UFC boss Dana White.
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Revisiting Alex Pereira vs Thomas Powell
Pereira returned to MMA after more than four years away from the sport in November 2020.
The 37-year-old had an unimpressive 2-1 record, but there was still a ton of hype behind him.
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was running out of people to beat, so who better to draft in than his old kickboxing rival, who had bested ‘Stylebender’ twice and famously knocked him out so badly he needed an oxygen mask.
To earn a spot in MMA’s premier league, Pereira had to prove himself against 4-4 middleweight Thomas Powell.
The pound-for-pound superstar did just that with a vicious one-shot first round knockout at LFA 95.
Pereira caught Powell clean with his signature left hook just over four minutes into their fight.
As Pereira celebrated a sensational win, his opponent remained facedown on the floor for a very long time.
Alex Pereira reflects on ‘really hardcore’ knockout
In February 2024, Pereira looked back at the savage knockout that earned him a UFC contract.
The usually-stoic fighter admitted he was genuinely scared Powell was seriously hurt after their clash.
“That’s the fight that’s scared him the most in terms of hurting somebody,” Plinio Cruz said while translating for Pereira during an interview with MMA Fighting.
“You go there prepared and do everything to win the fight, but after the fight is over you still want the opponent to be able to go back home to his family.
“The guy was literally eight minutes unconscious on the floor. So, even Glover [Teixeira], me [Cruz] and him [Pereira], we were all concerned with what was going on.
“Seeing that was really hardcore. He can still be the stone face but he still has a good heart.
“He was definitely scared for a little bit.”