As of October 2024, there are round 900 skilled fighters signed to the UFC roster, and out of all of them, not a single athlete comes near the madness that Michel ‘Demolidor’ Pereira brings to the desk.
With the flashy Brazilian set to return to the octagon this weekend in the principle occasion of UFC Vegas 99, it’s time to make a journey down reminiscence lane and look again at when Michel Pereira was just a few inches away from getting himself disqualified following (one other) insane backflip.
Michel Pereira was virtually disqualified after backflipping onto UFC opponent
Michel Pereira rides into UFC Vegas 99 on the again of an excellent eight-fight successful streak, which incorporates victories over powerful contenders comparable to Michal Oleksiejczuk, Andre Petroski, and Santiago Ponzinibbio.
But it was his final efficiency that’s the topic of this throwback, a struggle towards harmful middleweight Ihor Potieria which happened at UFC 301 in Might of this 12 months.
Pereira was in a position to safe the win with a superb standing guillotine in spherical one and while the submission was extremely spectacular, the choke was locked up just some seconds after he was virtually disqualified from the competition solely.
A showman to his core, Michel Pereira would ship followers into hysterics when he backflipped over the guard of Potieria… However because the ‘Demolidor’ got here down from the rafters, his knee appeared to land flush on the Ukrainian’s head.
On replay, it was revealed simply how shut Pereira was to being disqualified, with the knee first hitting the chest of Potieria just a few milliseconds earlier than the momentum of the flip precipitated it to then strike the pinnacle.
The UFC 301 commentary staff was fast to establish that Pereira was just some inches away from a shock DQ loss with Paul Felder noting, “I nonetheless suppose he’s obtained to be taught his lesson from doing backflips and making an attempt to land unlawful knees.
“However wanting on the one angle, a number of it did land on the chest, thank God for him, and I feel that’s what stopped him from potentially getting DQ’d right here.”
Who stated MMA is not pure leisure? 🥋💥
Michel Pereira simply redefined the sport with a transfer that left everybody jaw-dropped… actually! 🤯
Again within the octagon, he executed a backflip knee straight to his opponent’s dome! 😱 All he wanted was 54 seconds to wrap up the… pic.twitter.com/9lqjbGUs9O
— Antonio Santiago (@awsan) May 5, 2024
Former double champion Daniel Cormier would later reveal the reaction of Pereira’s corner when he advised them within the octagon that the backflip may have resulted in an unceremonious disqualification.
“After I advised him and his coaches, it is best to have seen the vitality simply drain from these guys, it seemed like these males had been going to cry as a result of they thought that nice efficiency and that choke was going to get overturned to a No Contest.”
“His coronary heart simply sunk [but] once I advised the coaches that he received – simply pure pleasure and jubilation. It was loopy… He’s a wild man and that’s what makes him enjoyable, however in that second, I hope he realizes that a few of these actions might be very harmful.”
Mockingly, Pereira had already gained considerably of a status for his acrobatic expertise earlier than UFC 301; having flipped, jumped, and span his means round a good few fighters down the years – however that one towards Potieria was simply loopy to witness.
I like how Wrestling Twitter has stumbled onto Michel Pereira throughout his struggle week 😂
Admittedly does much less of this now, however that backflip makes an look once in a while! https://t.co/j98rjPzS1T— Vijay Randhawa ❎ (@VijayRandhawa91) October 16, 2024
“My goodness, his athleticism is a cheat code,” hailed former UFC fighter Kenny Florian, through the Anik and Florian Podcast, a number of days later.
“It reveals that this can be a man, it goes past successful – he desires to indicate his expertise, like he’s there to entertain which I can respect as a result of it takes some huge balls, it’s one factor to do it in coaching however to do it dwell in a struggle when it issues, and to drag it off.”
Pereira returns to face ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez this weekend at UFC Combat Evening
Michel Pereira will put his eight-fight successful streak on the road this weekend when he faces Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez in the principle occasion of UFC Vegas 99, scheduled for October 19 at The Apex.
Since struggling a vicious TKO loss to Kevin Holland in Might 2020, Hernandez has secured 5 huge victories in a row, together with stoppage wins over Roman Kopylov, Edmen Shahbazyan, and Marc-Andre Barriault.
That being stated, ‘Fluffy’ has skilled a stop-start few years within the promotion, with Tapology reporting that he’s had a whopping 10 fights canceled since that loss to Holland.
Regardless of a troublesome couple of years, Hernandez stays a bonified contender at 185lbs – ‘Fluffy’ presently occupies the #13 spot within the middleweight rankings, one above Michel Pereira who sits at #14.
Will we see but extra madness from Pereira this coming weekend, or has the Brazilian lastly discovered his lesson? Discover out at UFC Vegas 99 on Saturday, October 19.
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