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Pereira knows how to fight, and he knows how to swap a tire off a rim with nothing more than a hammer and metal rod.

Alex Pereira has had a wild ride to the top of the UFC, but he hasn’t forgotten his roots.

As a youth he dropped out of school at 12 to work in a tire repair shop in Brazil and spent years of his life doing back breaking auto work and slipping into alcoholism. Kickboxing led him away from drinking and poverty — he went pro in 2013 and was a Glory champion by 2017. In 2020 he put his full efforts towards MMA, and by 2022 he’d won his first UFC title.

Now he’s the UFC light heavyweight champion … but the dude still knows how to wrangle a quick rim job.

In a new video shared through his Instagram stories, “Poatan” returned to Villa Nova Borracharia in Sao Paulo where he used to work. He didn’t hesitate to step in and get his hands dirty, swapping some tires off their rims with the less than optimal tools at hand.

Alex Pereira’s next task in the cage will be a light heavyweight title defense against Khalil Rountree Jr. in the main event of UFC 307 this October 5th in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s a bit of an odd opponent given Rountree is ranked No. 8 at 205, and No. 2 ranked Magomed Ankalaev is still waiting for his shot. In a recent interview on his YouTube channel, Pereira put the blame for that solely on Ankalaev.

“I’ve always wanted to fight against Ankalaev and I’ve made it clear,” he said “But Ankalaev didn’t want to fight me. I don’t know the reason, if it was the location, if he didn’t want to fight.”

“He isn’t the champion, he can’t pick anything,” Pereira continued. “[UFC 307] is the opportunity that showed up and he didn’t want it. He has his reasoning, I don’t know what it is. But I came here to tell you I’m not scared of anyone.”

“Everyone knows my history and everything I’ve done, not only in MMA, but in kickboxing as well. It’s obvious that I want to fight this guy. I think he has made things difficult, but we’ll meet eventually.”

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Gerald Meerschaert etched his name in the UFC history books on Saturday by submitting Edmen Shahbazyan with a nasty arm-triangle choke to earn his 12th finish in the octagon.

Not only did the come-from-behind win net Meerschaert a $ 50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, his fight-ending submission also put him one spot ahead of UFC legend Anderson Silva for the most finishes in UFC middleweight history. It’s a notable accomplishment, no doubt, but because he’s still actively competing right now, Meerschaert admits he’s not sitting around waiting for the chance to polish a plaque for his wall at home.

Instead, Meerschaert insists he still has a lot of work left to do, which means the record he just set will only end up extended even further into the stratosphere with more UFC wins.

“It’s cool to say,” Meerschaert said after UFC Vegas 96. “I don’t think about it too much right now. It’s just kind of one fight at a time, and I wish I could give you more than that because it is a cool thing. Truthfully, if I sit here and stop and give myself a little pat on the back, like, that’s awesome — just to have my name in the same conversation or sentence as somebody like Anderson Silva or Demian Maia and guys like that, that’s great — but I got a lot of fight left in me, I’ve got a lot more fights to go.

“When I hang them up, that will be a cool thing to throw around, like, ‘I was cool back in the day. I got a T-top Firebird.’ It’s a cool thing to say for now, and then when I’m retired, it will be fun to tell my kids and watch them not care.”

Of course, Meerschaert didn’t break Silva’s record without facing some serious adversity.

Prior to his submission win, Meerschaert found himself in great danger after getting blasted with a shot that dropped him to the canvas and prompted Shabazyan to rain down punches on him in hopes for a finish. Yet, as he does, Meerschaert was able to gut through a difficult situation before staging an awe-inspiring comeback to snatch the fight-ending sequence.

In a perfect world, Meerschaert prefers a dominant win like the submission he used to beat Bryan Barberena in March, but he’ll never complain too much when his hand gets raised.

“You mean getting punched in the head and face a bunch of times? I’m trying not to do that, but you get into a fist fight, that’s kind of what happens.,” Meerschaert said with a laugh. “Edmen did a very good job on the feet. He had very good distance management. He had some good clean power shots down the middle. He caught me with a really good body shot that, just the way it landed, the action on it at the end it kind of landed on a weird spot.

“I’ve got a pretty tough stomach, like usually body shots don’t do anything, but the way and the time he caught me, that really sucked and that kind of started the little sequence of him beating me about the head and shoulders. But as long as I’m awake, I’ve got a chance to win. I pretty much blocked everything and had to weather the storm a little bit and found my way out.”

Meerschaert credited referee Mark Smith for giving him every opportunity to survive the onslaught before storming back to get the submission on Shahbazyan.

As much as he wishes he wouldn’t end up in those kinds of hairy situations in the first place, Meerschaert knows through plenty of experience that he has what it takes to absorb a whole lot of punishment and still storm back for the win.

“I know if I’m still awake, there’s a way for me to win,” Meerschaert said. “You’ve got to put me six feet under before I’m going to stop fighting. Whether it’s on the feet swinging back, if I’ve got a chance on the ground, my chances are as good as anybody on the mat.

“I know what it looked like because obviously it was happening to me, but all I was thinking after that body shot and when he was trying to get me out of there, I was like, ‘Oh, this is great, he’s going to tire himself out, it should make wrestling him a whole lot easier.’ Fortunately for me, it didn’t get stopped and it did [tire him out] because I blocked most of the shots. … Eventually, he gassed out and I got ahold of his neck.”

Between the new promotional record he set and the bonus he’s taking home, Meerschaert had a pretty successful night at UFC Vegas 96. It may not be the way he wanted to win, but Meerschaert acknowledges that durability and a never-say-die attitude are attributes that separate him from much of his competition.

“A clean victory like my last fight would be a much better example of that, but I fought a really tough guy,” Meerschaert said. “He’s been ranked before and he’s got some really good wins.

“I think if you’re going to go fight somebody, like, yeah, it’s scary to go fight somebody who’s a knockout artist or a guy that’s super strong or has endless cardio and all this stuff, but I think you should be really scared of a guy that’s not going to quit and that’s not going to go away just because you land a couple of shots.”

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Amid his sidelining from action, former undisputed light heavyweight champion, Jiri Prochazka has claimed a potential middleweight title run may be on the cards next — particularly after Dricus du Plessis retained his title at UFC 305 against former champion, Israel Adesanya.

Prochazka, who still retains the number one rank in the light heavyweight pile, most recently headlined UFC 303 at the end of June during International Fight Week.

Suffering his second defeat to champion, Alex Pereira in their heated title rematch, Czech Republic striker, Prochazka was stopped with a brutal high-kick knockout.

And in the immediate aftermath of his loss, the former Rizin FF star weighed up both a middleweight drop in chase of a second Octagon crown — or a title-eliminator against fellow former champion, Jamahal Hill.

In his most recent victory, devastating knockout ace, Prochazka rallied to best Aleksandar Rakic with a stunning second round stoppage at UFC 300 earlier this year to boot.

Jiri Prochazka weighs up Dricus du Plessis title charge

And still undecided on his future amid links to an impending return to action later this year, Prochazka has welcomed the chance to take on Pretoria favorite, du Plessis for the middleweight championship.

“I’ve been considering that if (Israel Adesanya) wins, I’ll stay in the light heavyweight division, but if (Dricus) du Plessis wins, I’ll follow him,” Jiri Prochazka said on his official YouTube channel.

“I’ll clear things up in a bit there and take the belt,” Jiri Prochazka explained. “It would certainly be a challenge for me to go for the belt in the [middleweight] division. And then move up [back to light heavyweight].”

Winning 205lbs gold back in the summer of 2022, Prochazka travelled to Singapore where he toppled then-champion, Glover Teixeira with a stunning fifth round finish — defeating the Brazilian with a rear-naked choke stoppage — sans hooks, with the challenger down on the scorecards heading into the final round.

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Unless something dramatically changes, 2024 will come and go without Conor McGregor fighting in the UFC.

Despite McGregor expressing his wishes to return this year, UFC CEO Dana White has been adamant that “The Notorious” won’t compete in 2024 after a broken toe cancelled his fight against Michael Chandler, which was originally scheduled for UFC 303 in June. All signs appeared to point toward a December showdown for the long-awaited matchup, but White revealed that while he talked to McGregor, “he won’t fight this year.”

Recently retired UFC welterweight Matt Brown has long believed that McGregor will never fight again, and his opinion was only strengthened by this latest delay.

“He’s gone,” Brown said of McGregor on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I’ve said it for a long time now. How many years have I been saying it? He’s done. I don’t discount that there’s a chance that he comes back, but the chances of him coming back are way lower than the chances of him not fighting again. He’s at, like, a 20-percent chance of coming back, I think.

“He’s doing great staying in the news, doing great keeping his name out there. We’d all love to see him fight still. I’d love to see him fight Chandler, whoever I’d love to see Conor fight — if he’s training properly, staying off the various substances or whatever it is. Come in the real Conor. Live your life all want when you’re 45 and you’re retired and you’re totally out. Enjoy it then, but for now let’s see all the fights. Let’s see them. I want to see you fight.”

There’s a myriad of reasons why Brown never bought the McGregor comeback after the Irish superstar suffered a gruesome broken leg in his last UFC appearance in a loss to Dustin Poirier back in 2021.

Truth be told, Brown’s opinion on McGregor doesn’t differ that much from White, who has long questioned if the former two-division UFC champ would actually fight again one day.

“Conor McGregor — maybe he’ll fight again, maybe he won’t,” White said on The Jim Rome Show in June. “You never know with some of the guys that get to that level [of wealth]. You never know when you’re going to see them again.”

While McGregor’s future remains cloudy, Chandler remains stuck waiting after first signing up for the matchup upon agreeing to serve as a The Ultimate Fighter coach in early 2023.

From McGregor still recovering from his injury, to a required six-month waiting period to fight again after re-entering the UFC’s anti-doping program, to the broken toe in July, Chandler has been forced to the sidelines as his 39th birthday creeps closer in April 2025.

Assuming the fight doesn’t get scheduled in 2024, Chandler has missed at least two years of his career waiting for McGregor, and there’s still no guarantee his patience pays off.

“In my view, you only live once and this is a short window of time in your life that you get to compete at the highest level,” Brown said of Chandler’s situation. “I think he’s going to look back when he’s 50, 60 years old and be like, ‘I missed out on a couple of years there just waiting for a payday.’ I don’t think he’s hurting for money anyways [but], ‘I waited for this payday and I could have been out there putting myself on the line.’

“I think Michael Chandler’s a competitor. I think he wants to be out there putting it on the line. I think he’s going to end up regretting this someday.”

Perhaps the biggest risk for Chandler would be booking a different fight and then potentially missing out on the matchup against McGregor. He could have done that multiple times over by now, but Brown argues even if Chandler fought and lost during the past two years, that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t eventually get McGregor anyways.

“I’ve said it a million times, say he fought four times and those two years and he went 2-2 — Conor still fights him,” Brown said. “It’s not like Chandler’s an up-and-comer that’s going to be on Fight Nights or the prelims or something. He would have had to lose all of his fights for Conor to say, ‘I’m not fighting you.’ Maybe even then Conor might fight him. Conor’s going to need a tune-up fight coming back. He might see that as a tune-up fight. I don’t think he would have lost anything by fighting however many times.

“I get it why he’s waiting, I guess. Maybe they’re just stringing him along. We don’t know what he’s hearing. We don’t know the voices in his ear, what they’re telling him. Hindsight’s always 20/20, right? It’s easy for us to look back and say, ‘You should have fought all this time,’ but it’s like, OK, we know in hindsight you should have fought, but at what point do you put your foot down and say, ‘OK, I’m fighting again.’”

Brown also argues that because McGregor has so many questions surrounding him after at least three years off and a 1-3 résumé in his past four fights, that beating him now isn’t the same as handing him a loss when he was coming off his mythical “champ-champ” status nine years ago.

Of course, Brown doesn’t fault Chandler for seeking the fame and fortune that comes along with a McGregor fight, but at this point, that’s all he’s after.

“It’s clear the wait is for a payday,” Brown said. “It’s not a legacy thing. It’s not for competitive nature. I think Michael Chandler’s probably going to look back on it and say, ‘I should have jumped in there.’ Maybe he won’t. I can’t read his mind, I don’t know what’s going on in his life, but I’m guessing he’s probably solid on money. It doesn’t really add up to me why you’d want to do that.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

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