Following his spectacular first-round knockout victory over Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320, Alex Pereira offered perception right into a poignant second that occurred throughout their pre-fight faceoff. The Brazilian champion was captured on digicam telling his opponent in Portuguese that he wouldn’t be going again to the tire store, a reference that carries deep private significance tied to his humble beginnings.
Why Alex Pereira Advised His Opponent He Would Not Return to the Tire Store
In the course of the post-fight press convention at UFC 320, Pereira defined the motivation behind this assertion. The champion revealed that he made this declaration to himself as a lot as to his opponent, creating a private reminder of what was at stake of their rematch. His rationalization highlighted the psychological significance of his working-class background in driving his preventing profession.
He defined:
“To remind myself later, you already know? I used to be placing a bit of duty on myself to do not forget that, as a result of I’ve already stated it just a few instances earlier than when individuals requested me how I managed to change into the particular person I’m right now. I stated, ‘I didn’t have a Plan B. I needed to battle.’ And I stated I didn’t wish to return to the tire store. So, I repeated that actual phrase to him to remind myself I didn’t wish to return to the tire store. However I’m going to Brazil, and I’m going to return to the tire store — with this belt right here.”
Pereira’s tire store reference stems from his youth in Brazil’s favelas, the place he dropped out of center college and took numerous guide labor jobs to outlive. One in all these positions was at a neighborhood tire store, the place he spent lengthy hours mounting, balancing, and repairing tires for minimal wages. This era of his life was marked by important hardships, together with struggles with alcoholism that he has overtly mentioned.
The remark gained extra context from their earlier encounter at UFC 313 in March, the place Ankalaev and his staff had mocked Pereira’s working-class background. Throughout that battle’s press convention, Ankalaev responded to a reporter’s query about whether or not he would “ship Pereira again to the tire store” by stating that whether or not Pereira stayed within the sport or returned to tire work could be as much as him. This trade clearly struck a nerve with the Brazilian champion, who was visibly angered by the disrespectful reference to his previous.
In explaining his faceoff assertion at UFC 320, Pereira offered a deeper understanding of his mindset. He described how he had beforehand advised interviewers that his success got here from having no backup plan, no “Plan B” to fall again on if preventing didn’t work out. For Pereira, it was both succeed as a fighter or return to his earlier lifetime of guide labor. This all-or-nothing mentality turned a driving power in his profession.
The champion emphasised that his tire store expertise, whereas tough, was instrumental in creating the self-discipline and work ethic that carried him to UFC success. He has beforehand said that he owes a debt of gratitude to these tough early years, because the bodily calls for of tire work helped construct his power and psychological toughness. Nonetheless, the prospect of returning to that life represented failure in his thoughts, making it a robust motivational device.
In the course of the UFC 320 press convention, Pereira defined that he repeated the phrase to Ankalaev as a approach of placing duty on himself to recollect why he was preventing. The assertion served as each a declaration to his opponent and a private reminder of what he was decided to keep away from.
