Knowing the past life of the current UFC light heavyweight champion helps us to say whether the unprecedented "triple championship" is a real possibility or mere martial gossip.
“Hands of Stone”
Today, anyone who watches Alex “Poatan” Pereira receive an ovation in a shopping mall in Canada as a celebrity cannot imagine the demons he recently had to overcome to be there.
This “pop star”, who instead of beaming up his audience with choreography, knocks down his opponents with left hooks, had to overcome poverty and alcoholism at a very young age.
Despite always praising his indigenous roots, Alex was born in São Bernardo do Campo, perhaps the most industrial municipality in Brazil, full of car factories and smoke. São Bernardo is part of the metropolitan region of São Paulo, which is the largest city in the world’s southern hemisphere.
In other words, Poatan (which means “stone hands” in Tupi, a native Brazilian language) developed “hard hands” because he was born and raised in a brutal “steel jungle”, and had to take care of himself very fast.
Being “another one” among the 12 million people of São Paulo with few opportunities, he left school at the age of 12 and went to work in a tire shop. According to him, it was normal to work up to 10 hours a day.
Until he was 21 years old, the only striking moves Alex knew involved sledgehammers and tires. Alex was then introduced to Kickboxing and his life began to change for the better. According to himself, the martial art was what saved him from alcoholism and a life full of suffering.
During the first 4 years of training (from 21 to 25), Alex continued to drink normally, despite being professionally trained. The UFC light heavyweight champion states that he drank up to 1 liter of cachaça a day (alcohol content of approximately 40%). The most impressive thing is that, even with this lifestyle, he became Brazilian Kickboxing champion.
“Stone Face”
Alex, who now has more than 2.2 million followers on Instagram alone, has become extremely popular with a weird kind of “anti-charisma”.
By always looking directly at the opponent or at the camera, without showing the slightest emotion, be it joy or anger, fear or courage, Poatan attracted a lot of perplexity, and the perfect image to represent him became the “stone face”: 🗿.
This “stone face” means an absence of emotions, and coldness, which for a fighting situation can be quite suitable. Therefore, Poatan’s stance may have a lot to do with overcoming his probably biggest struggle to date: against alcohol.
All I wanted was to be a controlled guy (…) arrive at the party and drink one or two cans of beer and be tranquil (…) When I didn’t drink for 6 months I said “Hey, I’m controlled!”, so… now I’m just going to drink a little can (…) (laughs) oh, there was no end”.
Apparently, the “stone face” only manifests itself in moments that call for seriousness. By exposing himself more on social media, his more “emotional and human” side was revealed, with no shortage of smiles in his relationship with his children, with his now ex-girlfriend, and, especially, in his friendship with former UFC champion Glover Teixeira.
Sometimes I see people drinking and I think “damn, how do they do it?” (…) When I drank, I was happy there, at that moment, you know? But today I am happy all the time.
When asked what was the “turning point” that made him give up alcohol after 4 difficult years of struggle, why exactly at that moment, Alex replied:
Why? Because I know where I want to get to and I know where I’m going to get to, understand? You have to have a direction, you can’t wander around aimlessly. You have to say: I’m here and I’m going to get there, understand? Only then you can do it.
The quotes above were taken from the “Connectcast Podcast”, recorded on April 4, 2022. These lines from Pereira were spoken just months before he won his belt by beating the so-far dominant middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, at Madison Square Garden, NY.
Well, he really knew where he was going. And he got there.
The following year (2023), despite losing the middleweight belt in the rematch against Adesanya, he made history again by becoming the light heavyweight champion.
A third “golden” belt
This year, Alex turns 37 years old, meaning he is already at the end of his career’s best days, despite the spectacular results he has been achieving.
Three options are presented for the future of the champion who, to date, still has no fight scheduled:
- Defend his light heavyweight title (most likely).
- Move down a category and fight for the middleweight title again (he mentioned this possibility on his social networks after Sean Strickland’s defeat to Dricus Duplessis at UFC 297).
- Move up a category and compete for the heavyweight title (unprecedented)
The three options are, without a doubt, interesting. However, the only espetacular move would be the attempt at a triple championship, something never done in the history of the UFC. Furthermore, many consider it to be impossible.
Many speculations have already been made, but Alex’s future remains uncertain. One thing, however, is very certain: it is not wise to doubt this fighter with hands of stone, a face of stone, and multiple golden belts.
A much smarter person than me once told me that we shouldn’t evaluate people by where they are, but by where they are “minus” where they came from. It is this “delta” that really demonstrates the power and strength of the individual.
Alex’s track record shows quite a special "delta". Doubting someone of his caliber is not smart at all, considering how many times he’s shrugged off the “impossible” tag.
The triple championship? Yes, it’s on the table for Alex. Let's keep a close eye and wait!
