Former UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is all set to have his first heavyweight bout in a few more hours at UFC Freedom 250. However, one of 'Poatan's' old sparring clips is going viral and creating a buzz among the fanbase.

The video in the discussion was shared on Instagram by The Dark Horse MMA on June 12. It displayed a noticeably leaner version of Pereira in an intense sparring session with a boxer. 'Poatan' absorbed quite a number of hard strikes in the video, while getting most of his shots blocked or dodged.

The video also had the lettering of "Alex Pereira learned the difference," and "This ain't the UFC," to portray that the boxer got the better of him in the session. But many didn't accept this narrative.

While the video was shared on June 12, Pereira's physique in it said that it was shot long ago, when he fought in the lower weight divisions of the UFC. Pereira made his UFC debut at middleweight, went on to claim the title, then lost it and moved to light heavyweight due to the strain of excessive cutting down.

Nevertheless, the former kickboxer also dominated the light heavyweight division with his exceptional striking and claimed the title before moving up to heavyweight in search of a three-weight division championship glory at UFC Freedom 250.

Boxing sparring is one of the staples of Pereira's pre-fight training camps. In most such sessions, the Brazilian does take a few shots due to his unguarded stance, but he eventually gets the better of most of his partners.

Pereira caught up with the Australian heavyweight boxer, Demsey McKean, for a similar sparring session in 2024, where he evenly matched the boxer's skill, landing several thudding strikes.

And hence, a large chunk of fans weren't particularly happy with the narrative of the aforementioned Instagram post.

Fans reason with the narrative presented by Alex Pereira's sparring video

One of the noticeable differences in the video between Pereira and his opponent was that the latter protected his head with a headgear, while 'Poatan' had none. Multiple fans highlighted this to portray that the boxer didn't make Pereira "learn" anything.

One of them said, "Difference is one can take bone to bone, and one's wearing headgear," while another one penned, "There's a reason boxer boy is wearing headgear."

Well, while the Instagram clip featured moments where the boxer looked heavy on Pereira, some other fans found that the story of the entire session was completely different. One wrote, "I saw the full version. Once Alex got bored with these jabs, he turned on the meat grinder on that boxer."

Another one echoed this stance, writing, "PSA this video is old, and if you watch the ENTIRE video and don’t highlight the boxer with headgear(to protect himself from what was about to happen) you would see that Alex absolutely pieced him up and it wasn’t really close overall."

Another fan straight-up debunked the video's narrative, mentioning, "U mean Alex Pereira, the champion kick boxer? W** is this caption lol."

Well, the original video was uploaded on Pereira's YouTube channel on July 8, 2023, ahead of his UFC 303 fight against Jiri Prochazka. So, regardless of what the fans said, you can check it out yourself to find out if the video tried to spread a justified narrative.

But with 'Poatan's' interim heavyweight title fight about to start at UFC Freedom 250 in a few more hours, do you think he will be able to become the first UFC fighter to hold championships across three weight divisions? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Souvik Roy

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil