‘Poatan’ might no longer be UFC light heavyweight king, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with celebrating the best moments of his truly sensational championship reign.
After moving up from middleweight, Alex Pereira claimed the UFC light heavyweight title in November 2023 with an unbelievable second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka.
The Brazilian superstar was then called on to ‘save UFC 300’ with a short-notice title defense against former champion Jamahal ‘Sweet Dreams’ Hill – a title bout that ended in cold, cold, controversy.
Alex Pereira ‘coldest’ post-KO celebration should be made into a statue
Heading into UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill, there was some serious animosity between the two light heavyweight stars; with both athletes predicting that they’d score a viral finish out in Las Vegas.
Round one opened with Pereira landing several hard low kicks, to which Hill answered with a swinging right hand that caught the top of the Brazilian’s head.
With two minutes to go, Hill threw a kick that landed just below the beltline; despite referee Herb Dean attempting to stop the contest, Pereira waved away the official before unloading his patented left hook.
Less than 10 seconds later, the fight was over – with Pereira then standing over his KO’d rival and issuing what’s been dubbed the ‘coldest celebration’ in UFC title history.
At the post-fight press conference, Pereira explained why he struck his now-iconic celebratory pose: “He threw the groin shot, but it did not really hurt too much, so I chose to just keep pushing so I did not have to reset the distance [and] capitalize on the moment.
“I spoke with my team before that I wanted to fight five rounds, but if the knockout happened, that’s what I was going to do… He behaved not so good.
“He started respectful during the week and then he did what he did during the press conference and the weigh-ins, so honestly the least that I could do was just that to him.”
A few days later, Hill shared a reaction video to UFC 300 via his YouTube channel in which he admitted that the controversial finish simply came down to that age-old adage of ‘Protest yourself at all times’.
“My feelings on it honestly don’t matter… I just take it as a lesson learned and just grow from there, understand that it’s ‘protect yourself at all times’, pay attention and stay focused at all times – even through commands and gamesmanship.”
Whilst the wider MMA fanbase celebrated both the knockout and the celebration, there were several notable names who claimed that referee Herb Dean ‘made a mistake’ in the bout.
Feud reignited at the UFC Performance Institute later that same year
By December 2024, ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Poatan’ had reignited their feud on social media – although tensions almost boiled over when they ran into each other at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.
Words were exchanged initially, and then Pereira threw a pair of boxing gloves at Hill’s feet – challenging him to an immediate sparring session – training partners thankfully intervened before things got physical.
Hill launched a vicious verbal assault on Pereira in the aftermath of their UFC PI confrontation, in which he claimed that the Brazilian was looking to get him in trouble with the promotion and had no intention of scrapping.
Not many fans or fighters bought that explanation, with one of Alex Pereira’s former kickboxing rivals scolding Hill for what he perceived to be a ‘dangerous move’ that could’ve’ had disastrous consequences.
Hill went on to lose his next fight, a third-round KO to Jiri Prochazka.
Pereira retained his title with back-to-back wins over Prochazka and Khalil Rountree Jr but would lose the light heavyweight throne to Magomed Ankalaev earlier this month at UFC 313.