“I had to sacrifice my family, many friends and a good life, but thank goodness I got this for all who believed in me,” Pereira said. “I had to suffer a lot to get here; I had to leave my mother, my brothers, my family for a dream, and here I am. If I could go back in time I wouldn’t do it all over again because I suffered so much to get here.”
Luckily for us, Pereira doesn’t have to go back in time, because we’ve got him now, and after making the viral rounds for his highlight reel moves and knockouts, he did the same thing in the UFC, as he knocked out British veteran Danny Roberts in less than two minutes in May. If there were any first-time UFC jitters, they weren’t anywhere to be seen in Pereira’s performance.
“I am young, but I have many fights and I am very experienced,” he said. “So, for me, it was just one more fight. I was super trained, and God was with me. I was realizing my biggest dream and knew it was my time.”
By the time the fight was over, fans around the globe knew who Pereira was and they wanted more. That reaction was satisfying for a fighter whose unorthodox style wasn’t always as positively accepted.
