UFC middleweight Alex Pereira's coach has revealed how the Brazilian struggled to train due to being "rotten inside" as a result of his battle with alcohol.
The former middleweight champion has had one of the most remarkable stories in MMA, and capped it off last November when within just a handful of fights in the cage he won UFC gold. But he hasn't always been the wrecking machine he is today, with his trainer Belocqua Wera detailing how a drinking problem ravaged his early days as a kickboxer.
Pereira moved into MMA in 2015 amid a successful career in the ring, and actually defeated current champion Adesanya twice before their first UFC meeting. But he had struggled early to kick an addiction to alcohol which Wera claimed left him "rotten" and unable to progress to the top of the sport.
