UFC light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira is stepping inside the cage for the second time on short notice to defend his throne against former foe, Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303. The former two-division Glory title-holder flatlined Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 two months back and is now coming back to defend his belt in a bout that will earn him his biggest paycheck.
In an interview with Stake.com for The Sportster, Pereira spilled the beans, saying,
“This is for sure the best purse that we have negotiated this far, due to all the circumstances around it, like I said that’s another reason for me to see it as another great opportunity for me, it’s going to continue changing my life and I worked in a tire shop for 14 years so you know if you put together everything I made working at the tire shop, I tried to calculate it a little bit and it’s about half a percent of what the [purse] is.”
Stepping in for Conor McGregor who pulled out at the last minute against Michael Chandler, Alex Pereira was approached by the UFC to headline the event. Well, ‘Poatan‘ certainly made the best of this opportunity, striking the biggest deal of his career. Though he did not reveal the exact amount, his earnings at the tire shop for 14 years is about half of what he is about to earn on June 29, Saturday.
This will be the Brazilian’s fifth PPV and according to the aforementioned source, Pereira is expected to bag a whopping $3 million as salary excluding PPV and other bonuses. In fact, the hype is through the roof for this one as ‘The Czech Samurai’ channels his “chi” to duke it out with the champion to reclaim his lost belt.
In the build-up to the enthralling bout, Pereira’s arch-nemesis Israel Adesanya has dropped his predictions, and he foresees Prochazka’s hand being raised on Saturday.
Izzy places his bets on Prochazka, deeming that he and the Czech are the chosen ones to KO Alex Pereira
Alex Pereira is currently 7-1 in the UFC with his only loss in the promotion coming at the hands of his rival, Israel Adesanya. The two locked horns for the first time in the UFC in 2022 and Pereira had the last laugh when he dismantled the champion in five rounds to take his belt. Following this stint, ‘The Sylebender’ evened the odds, finally conquering his demons to KO the Brazilian a year later in UFC 287.
Soon, the duo buried the hatchet and Pereira moved up to avenge his friend, Glover Teixeira. After defeating former champion, Jan Blachowicz, Pereria met Jiri for the belt. Rocking Prochazka early, Pereia pounced on him in round 2, raining down punches to rack his second belt in the promotion. Now as we get to UFC 303, the two are meeting again and Izzy has Prochazka in his books.
Dropping a new video on his YouTube channel, Adesanya vested his hopes in Jiri, deeming that he and the Czech are the chosen ones to lay out the Brazilian, predicting an R3 or R4 KO for the 31-year-old.
