Michel Pereira picks up third-straight middleweight finish, stops Ihor Potieria early at UFC 301
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, May 4, 2024 for UFC 301, going down live from the Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Headlining the event is a flyweight title bout between Alexandre Pantoja (27-5) and no. 10 ranked Steve Erceg (12-1).
Co-headlining the event is the return of former multi-time WEC and UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo (31-8), who comes back to the octagon tonight following a 2-0-1 stint in professional boxing to face no. 12 ranked Jonathan Martinez (19-4).
Our second bout to go down on the main card tonight came in the middleweight division between Michel Pereira (31-11) and Ihor Potieria (21-6).
Pereira came into the bout on a seven-fight win streak, having gone 2-0 since moving up to 185 lbs last October with two first round finishes, while Potieria had gone 2-3 inside the octagon to date.
Continue reading to see how this middleweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Michel Pereira def. Ihor Potieria via submission (guillotine choke) at :54 of round one
Michel Pereira opened up the bout with a nasty front snap kick up the middle and shortly after dropped Potieria with a two-punch combination. He then back flipped his way into north-south position and let go on some punches from top, wrapping up a guillotine choke as Potieria worked his way back to his feet and soon after submitted him with it.
Michel Pereira is the real deal, this is one dangerous dude.
Ok UFC, já chega de jogar esses caras pro Michel Pereira, senão ele vai acabar matando um bagre desses. O cara tem nivel de top 10 ou top 5 do UFC. É até perigoso botar ele pra lutar com esses caras KKKKKKKKK pic.twitter.com/cHQyOO2Xnu
— Igor Serafini | Canal Punch (@igorserafini_) May 5, 2024
After KO’ing Danny Roberts stiff in his epic UFC debut back in 2019 at UFC Rochester, Pereira then lost his next two-straight; first losing a unanimous decision to Tristan Connelly, a natural featherweight, in a fight he used an absurd amount of energy and just simply had a terrible game plan for. Pereira was then disqualified against Diego Sanchez in round three of a fight he was winning, bringing him to 1-2 in the UFC through his first three promotional bouts.
Since then however Pereira has defeated the likes of Zelim Imadaev (8-2, rear naked choke), Khaos Williams (11-1, UD), Niko Price (14-4, UD), Andre Fialho (14-3, UD), Santiago Ponzinibbio (28-5, SD), and then Andre Petroski (10-1, TKO), Michal Oleksiejczuk (19-6, rear naked choke), and Ihor Potieria (21-5, guillotine choke) since moving up to 185 lbs, finishing Petroski off in 66 seconds, Oleksiejczuk in 61 seconds, and now Potieria in just 54.
Moving up to 185 middleweight was the best move Michel Pereira has made in his career thus far.
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