After his spectacular first round knockout victory over Magomed Ankalaev on UFC 320, Alex Pereira gave insight into a moving moment that took place during their pre-fighting face-off. The Brazilian champion was captured on the camera and told his opponent in Portuguese that he would not go back to the tire shop, a reference that has deep personal meaning linked to his modest beginning.
Why Alex Pereira told his opponent that he would not return to the tire shop
During the press conference after the fight on UFC 320, Pereira explained the motivation behind this statement. The champion revealed that he made this statement just as much to his opponent and created a personal memory of what was at stake in their Rematch. His statement emphasized the psychological importance of his background of the working class in stimulating his fighting career.
He explained:
“To remember myself later, you know? I put a little responsibility on myself to remember that, because I said it a few times before when people asked me how I succeeded in becoming the person I am today. I said:” I didn’t have plan B. I had to fight. “And I said I didn’t want to go back to the tire shop. So I repeated the exact sense of reminding myself that I didn’t want to go back to the tire shop.
The reference of Pereira’s tire shops stems from his early life in the Favelas of Brazil, where he left high school and took various manual work jobs to survive. One of these positions was in a local tire shop, where he spent long hours mounting, balancing and repairing tires for minimal wages. This period of his life was agreed to meet Due to important hardships, including struggles with alcoholism that he has openly discussed.
The comment received an extra context of their earlier meeting at UFC 313 in March, where Ankalaev and his team had mocked the working class of Pereira background. During the press conference of that fight, Ankalaev answered the question of a reporter whether he would “send Pereira back to the tire shop” by saying whether Pereira stayed in the sport or returned to tire work to him. This exchange clearly became a nerve with the Brazilian champion, which was visibly angry by the disrespectful reference to his past.
When explaining his faceoff statement on UFC 320, Pereira gave a deeper insight into his mindset. He described how he had previously told interviewers that his success came from having no backup plan, no “plan B” to fall back if fighting did not work. For Pereira it was a hunger or returned to his previous life of manual labor. This all-or-nothing mentality became a driving force in his career.
The champion emphasized that his tire shop experience, although difficult, played an important role in developing discipline and work ethics that brought him to UFC success. He has previously stated that he owes a debt of gratitude to those difficult early years, because the physical demands of tire work kept his strength and mental resilience. However, the prospect of returning to that life represented failure in his mind, making it a powerful motivating tool.
During the UFC 320 press conference, Pereira explained that he repeated the expression to Ankalaev as a way to give himself responsibility to remember why he fought. The statement served as a statement to his opponent and a personal memory of what he was determined to avoid.
#Alex #Pereira #mentioned #tire #shop #UFC #Patan #reveals