Alex Pereira’s title shot at middleweight came on the heels of a brutal knockout win.
The former kickboxing world champion put away Sean Strickland in devastating fashion at UFC 276 in July 2022. Pereira, who entered the fight with five consecutive wins, made a big statement in Las Vegas to earn a shot at the middleweight title.
You can watch Pereira’s KO over Strickland in the video above.
Pereira returns to the cage Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 291 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City. He makes his light heavyweight debut against former champion Jan Blachowicz.
Pereira is coming off a knockout loss to Israel Adesanya in which he lost the middleweight title. The defeat snapped a seven-fight winning streak that included a TKO win over Adesanya to claim the belt in November 2022.
Blachowicz is coming off a draw against Magomed Ankalaev in a title fight for the vacant UFC light heavyweight belt in December. Prior to that, Blachowicz had a TKO win over Aleksandar Rakic in his first fight after he lost the title to Glover Teixeira.
