LAS VEGAS – It may qualify as a “no duh!” type of statement, but Michel Pereira is feeling better than most fight weeks because he doesn’t have to cut an extra 15 pounds.
Pereira will return to the middleweight division Saturday at UFC Fight Night 230. He’s fought at 185 pounds before, but not in the UFC, where he’s been a welterweight. But he missed weight by three pounds earlier this year for a fight against Stephen Thompson, and the bout was scrapped.
So Pereira made the decision to go back up, and it sounds like he’s been enjoying the change.
“I’m very happy, prepared, excited in this new division because I don’t need to cut a lot of weight,” Pereira said at Wednesday’s media day. “I’m feeling very well as a middleweight right now. I have a lot more energy, so I was training more and better. I’m confident. From now on, I’m a middleweight. I feel better. My personal life is better being a middleweight. Even when I was a welterweight, I was training with big guys, and I was always the bigger guy as a welterweight. But now I feel like I’m a middleweight. My body is a middleweight, so I’m going to stay in this weight division.”
Pereira said he used to cut around 45 pounds when he fought at welterweight. And no doubt, that carried over to his life outside the sport.
“I’m in love with my life right now,” he said. “I’m loving the fact that I’m a middleweight. I was even making jokes backstage because I didn’t used to like doing interviews when I was cutting weight. Now I’m happy.”
Pereira (28-11 MMA, 6-2 UFC) said he’s feeling good enough ahead of his fight against Andre Petroski (10-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) on Saturday that he put his hat in the ring to fight Khamzat Chimaev on short notice next week in Abu Dhabi now that Paulo Costa is out.
Check out Pereira’s full media day interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 230.
