Pereira Explains Circumstances That Made Last Bout ‘Toughest Challenge of My Life’

According to Michel Pereira, Santiago Ponzinibbio was the toughest challenge of his career to date.

Pereira defeated Ponzinibbio via split decision in the UFC Fight Night 206 co-main event last Saturday to make his debut in the promotion’s welterweight rankings.

  “Many factors made that the toughest challenge of my life. Besides Ponzinibbio being so tough, I fought at most at 50% of my potential,” he told Sherdog.com.

”When I arrived in Brazil, some of my trainers and sparring partners were not available. My camp was basically three days of CrossFit and boxing and two days of muay Thai. That´s why when I took Ponzinibbio´s back I released [the position], because I knew I could get tired in the grappling game.”

Pereira added that he faced visa issues in Brazil that made it a struggle to return to the United States in time for the fight.

“I traveled all over Brazil to get that visa done: Belem, Sao Paulo, Brasilia and I just arrived back at my home in Las Vegas eight days before the event. I lost 29 pounds in seven days. Definitely it was one of the toughest challenges I ever faced.”

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Meanwhile, Pereira is still trying to make sense of the controversy with Jorge Masvidal, who “Demolidor” accused of sending DMs to his wife in a callout of the popular welterweight. Masvidal shut that down in an ensuing social media post.

“I'm kind of embarrassed and surprised after his post. What happened is that about two years ago, when I started to bother Masvidal to face me on social media, my wife came to me showing a emoji sent by Masvidal via DM, but she didn’t show me there was something before,” Pereira said. “I just noticed that when I challenged Jorge in the Octagon, and he published the whole [conversation]. My wife is Persian and she works in a huge jewelry store and her social media is accessed by other people in the store.

“The fact is that the way Masvidal answered my challenge, it looks like I'm [the one] coming from three losses and he is the one who is coming from five straight wins. What is going on now is the complete opposite. If he doesn’t want to fight me now, no problem. Sooner or later I'll kick his ass. I also would love to fight Nate Diaz because I believe we could exchange some slaps and entertain the audience.”

When asked if he had any other opponent choices outside of Masvidal or Diaz, Pereira was at a loss to name fighters outside of the Top 5 in the division.

“I dont follow other fighters in the division,” he said. “I know [Gilbert Burns, Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington and Khamzat Chimaev]. By the way, if the UFC needs another guy to bring Chimaev to reality, like ‘Durinho’ did, I´m available.”

   Currently living in Las Vegas just a short distance away from the UFC Performance Institute, Pereira vowed that he will never fight at 50% of his potential as he did against Ponzinibbio.

“My next camp will be perfect,” he said. “The structure the UFC PI provides me with just three minutes from my home is just unbelievable. Now I´m bringing my boxing and muay Thai coach and a very good sparring partner from Belem. I´m getting their visas ready and soon they will be here for my next camp. Be sure my future opponents will face the best Michel Pereira.”