Alex Pereira pulled off perhaps his greatest stunt yet at UFC 303: making a crowd of 19,000 forget about Conor McGregor
If there’s a formula for becoming a superstar in the UFC, it’s to do what Alex Pereira did at UFC 303 on Saturday night. Present yourself as some kind of savior at one of the biggest pay-per-view events of the year. Stare down Jiri Procházka, a modern-day samurai straight out of Akira Kurosawa’s universe, for nearly five chilling minutes without blinking.
And then, knock him out.
Not once, but twice. The first time, right at the end of the first round, just to get people out of their seats. And then, another time, with a head kick just 13 seconds into the second round, a kind of finishing move to make everyone forget that Conor McGregor, the greatest opponent the UFC has ever seen, was nowhere in sight.
Pereira not only saved UFC 303 by replacing McGregor, who was forced to withdraw from his scheduled fight against Michael Chandler due to a broken toe, but he also made sure to capture the imagination in the same way McGregor did when he reached the top. Pereira took every doubt he heard about participating in such a high-stakes fight on two weeks’ notice like a shot of Jack Daniels and then stacked his empty shot on the pyramid of shot glasses just like he did.
This is rock and roll. This is the kind of stuff that makes UFC legends. Who’s next? Magomed Ankalaev? Jamahal Hill again? A trilogy with Israel Adesanya? A heavyweight cameo against Tom Aspinall? Freaky Jon Jones? These are all box office hits waiting to happen this summer.
In the end, “Poatan” retained his light heavyweight title with the ease of a guy who just had a good time on a Saturday night—which is a real magician when you consider the pressure he’s under to deliver. On a card that had undergone a facelift so extreme it was almost unrecognizable from its original form, he made sure that everyone who didn’t ask for a refund walked away feeling like they’d witnessed something great—like a fight-game meteor streaking across the sky. It was an impossible feat, considering that before Pereira arrived, UFC 303 had already become the biggest gate in UFC history.
McGregor sold it. Pereira delivered it.
Let’s put this in context for a minute. People from all over the world spent a ton of money to see McGregor’s first fight in three years, and settled for a nearly 37-year-old guy who, two weeks ago, was in Australia giving seminars, also nursing a broken toe. A Brazilian who speaks only a few words of English, who happily accepts his poker face that resembles the statues of Easter Island, and who doesn’t have the courage to say “no” to ridiculous fight offers. This is the guy who made Conor McGregor a last-minute idea. This is the guy the UFC should be celebrating as the next one up.
It’s a testament to Pereira’s rising power that even with the change in main events, UFC 303—once the dust settled—still finished as the fourth-highest gate of all time in the promotion’s 31-year history. No one, except perhaps Jon Jones, could have filled the kind of crater-sized hole left by McGregor.
The UFC should also thank Pereira for always wearing the cape, as he did when it came to finding a star to headline UFC 300 in April. In that event, he melted former champion Jamahal Hill to cap off the UFC’s most anticipated card of the year.
For this one? Let’s just say that UFC 303 felt like a bit of a washout at times before Pereira made his entrance. It wasn’t that great. In fact, it was a bizarre makeshift card until the final minute, when the first three fights of the PPV’s main card ended in choruses of boos.
Ian Machado Garry, McGregor’s Irish compatriot who was hoping to capitalize on his mentor’s presence on the same card, all but nullified Michael “Venom” Page’s vaunted striking game by using various forms of choking. That didn’t sit well with fans hoping for fireworks. Macy Chiasson then opened a gash above Mayra Bueno Silva’s eyebrow, ending the next fight in disappointing fashion in the second round. That, too, was a blow.
And in a bout of musical chairs, Anthony Smith (replacing the injured Jamahal Hill) was no match for Roman Dolidze (a middleweight who was fighting as a light heavyweight, replacing the injured Carlos Ulberg, who was replacing the suspended Khalil Rountree Jr.) in a makeshift affair. As if that weren’t enough, Dan Ige, a featherweight who was picked to fight Diego Lopes on just a few hours notice When Brian Ortega showed up at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with a fever and was forced to withdraw, Ige volunteered, weighed himself backstage, took off his shoes and presto—he was in the co-main event.
That’s the kind of card it was. To cap off a week of international fights, the UFC returned to its Wild West roots.
UFC 303 will be remembered as the night Pereira landed a head kick that sent Procházka to the ground, limbs weakened. The image of Pereira leaning over to set his broken toe after the knockout will remain symbolic. He replaced an irreplaceable fighter, who couldn’t fight because of a broken toe, while also tending to his own mangled toe. And he got the job done anyway.
Afterward, UFC president Dana White insisted in the post-fight press conference that Jon Jones is still the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet. That may be true, even considering that Pereira has beaten Adesanya, former champion Sean Strickland, Jan Blachowicz, and a monster like Procházka — not once, but twice — all in just two years. Or that Pereira is 8-1, winning titles in two different weight classes, since his debut in November 2021, while Jones has fought just twice since February 2020.
What makes a hero in today’s UFC is stepping up and doing the right thing. Without hesitation. Risking everything to save cards and keep fans talking about them. The Jones-Pereira debate will continue to rage, but if the two were to fight, the world would stop watching. Why? Because Pereira is the scariest new guy around, and he keeps showing up. When Jones was scheduled to face Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden last November but had to pull out due to a torn pectoral muscle, who stepped up?
None other than Alex Pereira. The man who, in the absence of the UFC’s biggest stars, has proven to be the best possible candidate.
Chuck Mindenhall writes about combat sports without bias, and sometimes about his Denver teams with extreme bias. He co-hosts The Ringer MMA Show on Spotify.