Alex Pereira has come, seen, and conquered. The stone-faced emoji of the UFC has come from humble beginnings and everyone knows that by now. From his kickboxing days to minimum wage odd jobs, Alex Pereira struggled a lot. Perhaps that’s what gave him the strength to become a multi-divisional champ.

He defeated Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight title and then, moved on to light heavyweight to claim the vacant title by defeating a returning Jiri Prochazka. All of it, within seven Octagon appearances within the UFC. A feat not many can repeat. Here’s how he found the motivation to do it.

Alex Pereira on being the champion again and again

Alex Pereira’s motivation comes from his humble beginnings. A famous video of Israel Adesanya once went viral where ‘Izzy’ claimed that Pereira would be sitting, working in a pub someday saying “I beat that guy one time”. The video went viral and made ‘Poatan’ feel challenged.

And lo and behold, suddenly, Adesanya was Dr. Frankenstein and Pereira was the monster. Today, ‘Poatan’ is a force to be reckoned with. He took to his Instagram to upload a brilliant edit of his with a video that details his motivations to keep going at it.

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“What always pushed me,” he said in the video. “I didn’t want to go back. I didn’t have a plan B, most people do. ‘If fighting doesn’t go well, I’ll do this.’ I didn’t have that. Either I become a fighter or I go back to the tire shop. Plan B was going back to the tire shop. And I didn’t want to. So there was no plan B.”

Clearly, going back was never an option. Losing was never an option. Perhaps it was the urgency of his struggles that pushed the Brazilian fighter to go and achieve so much with so few fights in the UFC. After winning his title, in the post-fight interview, he revealed the prophetic nature of his win. “It was written. I knew I was going to be the champion.” What’s next for the champion?

Will Pereira move on to heavyweight next?

Recently, Tom Aspinall stirred up the pot by responding to fans asking him to face off against Pereira. When a fan asked him to fight ‘Poatan’ he told them that it was a “Great idea’. However, the weight classes are perhaps the biggest obstacle in the way.

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Periera is a light heavyweight champ while Aspinall is the interim heavyweight champion. So far, Jon Jones still holds the title but is on his little recovery phase after suffering an injury. Will Pereira look forward to being the champion in not 2 but three different weight classes? There’s no one way to tell. Once he is ready for the fights again, perhaps Dana White would set up something interesting for him. Would you like to see him go to heavyweight?

Alex Pereira Possibly Moving to Heavyweight Division After Winning 185lbs and 205lbs UFC Titles Make MMA Community Thrilled- ’Hell He Wants”