A Bangkok ready guide to Alex Pereira and the nuclear left hook

Alex Pereira is an interesting case in combat sports because he’s managed to seamlessly convert his skills from kickboxing over to mma. While other big time kickboxers struggled with the transition, potentially due to a reliance on 4oz gloves, Pereira’s style of striking flourished. While many criticised him early on in his career for being “just a boxer”, he would develop his game over the course of winning multiple world championships. 

The hands

One of the reasons for the many boxerphobic remarks hurled towards Pereira is his reliance on the left hook. His stance is based around the left hook and his hands are by his shoulder’s ready at any moment to swing his brick-like hands right into the face of the opponent. Pereira will march you down, and then launch himself forwards, putting all of his weight and body rotation into his left hand. Instead of swinging wide (Adesanya) Pereira usually keeps the arc of his punch as tight as possible, utilising what Jack Dempsey describes as a shovel hook. Pereira’s game is about putting his opponent into the perfect position so he can finish the job with the left hook. It might take him one round or 5 rounds but eventually he trusts that the knockout will come.

Pereira utilises the jab to mix up his boxing and pressure the opponent towards the fence. Prioritising power over volume, the force behind it will snap your head back or dig into your body, allowing him to repeatedly give his opponent something they have to react to. This pressure often ends up with the target pinned up against the wall, limiting the opponent’s defensive option and forcing them into left hook distance. If the opponent attempts to parry his jab he will just whip the left hook around it. This can allow him to do a lot of damage and take rounds, however his recklessness can leave him open to the counter, as seen in the second Adesanya fight. 

Guard and stance

Pereira’s guard and stance provide springboards into his boxing. Pereira stands with his elbows in and hands by his shoulders, leaving a lot of space between them and his chin.. While his hand positioning would make an old school boxing coach cringe, it allows him to whip out the left hook at any moment, leading to many of his blink and you’ll miss it kos. By keeping his back heel up Pereira is able to keep his left hook loaded. Constantly being on the balls of his feet allows Pereira to hop into combinations, helping his already large frame cover even more distance. His springy feet give him a platform from which to unload offence.

 Kicking

While most fighters will add kicks to combinations, Pereira prefers to throw them naked. His strange calf kick is notorious for chewing up the legs of his opponent. Keeping his hip and shoulders back he sacrifices power, but makes the kick fast enough that it sneaks in. It was most prevalent in the MMA fights with Israel Adesanya. In the first kickboxing match Izzy was sparked by a counter overhand to left hook left hook so in both Adesanya ran away from Pereira and wouldn't open with boxing combinations. In both fights Pereira’s use of calf kicks and the checking of Izzy’s kicks left him without a leg to stand on, making the ko far easier to obtain. 

Pereira is not known as a great high kicker, but as Jason Wilnis found out after mocking Pereira’s lack of kicks, Pereira is not to be underestimated. What’s interesting is Pereira’s use of naked kicks. He can use the step up high kick to apply pressure from a further range, conditioning the opponent to move towards the fence or walk onto a counter punch as they try to close the distance and punish him.

Another weapon used by Pereira during his kickboxing days is his brutal stepping knees off both legs. Despite these taking somewhat of a backseat in his mma career due to the takedown threat, he is able to effectively utilise them, especially in the clinch. As a lanky tall fighter a lot of opponents would pressure into Pereira and get timed by intercepting body knees off of Alex’s back leg. These served to drain the opponents energy and cause them to rise out of their stance, putting them in firing range for punches. Pereira has ko’d multiple world class kickboxers throwing the left hand as they react to the knees in the clinch. The knee to hook combo also works vice versa. It makes you cover up and sets the range for the knee. A common combo for Pereira during his kickboxing days was slappy left hook - massive right knee - massive left hook as he fades back into his stance

Grappling

Despite the fact he earned his black belt by left hooking Jamahal Hill, many people, most notably Anthony Smith, would have you believe that Pereira is one single leg away from a embarrassing submission defeat. While grappling is definitely not Pereira’s strong suit, he is very aware of this. He knows that his best bet of winning the fight is going to come from the knockout, meaning that giving up submission opportunities or ground and pound trying to get up just isn’t worth it. In terms of takedown defence Pereira has a surprisingly good sprawl and a decent wall walk. Whether it is on the ground to stop strikes, or on the wall to stop back takes Pereira will cling to the overhook as if his life depends on it. While this hampers his ability to get up it significantly increases his survivability, even allowing him to land knees from the clinch, feeding into the overall gameplan of making it to the next round. Pereira has difficulty escaping the back position but it can at least be said that he has yet to be submitted from there, keeping discipline in fighting the hands at all times.

Conclusion

Alex Pereira’s story has been incredible. Taking up kickboxing at a very late age to quit drinking somehow led him into two glory world titles. If that wasn’t impressive enough he decided to go from “that guy who beat Izzy” to a two weight title holder in the biggest mma promotion ever in a couple of years. Alex Pereira has already accomplished enough in the sport to become a ufc hall of famer, and hopefully we have other great performances yet to come.