Alex Pereira may have punched his ticket to a light heavyweight title fight after a former champion of the division.
The co-feature of UFC 291 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City was a key light heavyweight matchup between Pereira (8-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Jan Blachowicz (29-10-1 MMA, 12-7-1 UFC). It was a close battle, but after earning split 29-28 scores from the judges, Pereira emerged victorious in his first light heavyweight fight in the UFC.
Blachowicz’s early gameplan was to eliminate the striking threat, as he looked for a takedown just 10 seconds into the fight. Pereira kept his legs underneath him and countered with a guillotine, but it wasn’t there. After adjusting, Blachowicz was able to get the fight to the ground and take Pereira’s back. Pereira remained calm with the full weight of Blachowicz on him, and defended submission attempts. Blachowicz racked up a lot of control time in Round 1.
