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Like most other Brazilian fighters, Alex Pereira's nickname or fight name is an intrinsic part of his identity.
The former middleweight champion is referred to as 'Poatan' inside the cage. Fans often wonder what the nickname means. The answer lies in the vicious knockouts that Pereira often scores.
According to Glory Kickboxing, where Pereira competed before, 'Po' in his native language Tupi stands for hand whereas 'Atan' can be translated to something solid, or stone-like. Hence, the fighter's nickname means 'Stone Hand'. Pereira has marked the same with a tattoo of pebbles and rocks on his left hand.
The nickname was given to Alex Pereira by his first kickboxing coach, Belocqua Wera, a Sao Paulo native of indigenous origin.
In a 2022 interview with UOL Esporte, Pereira shared how he came to be known as 'Poatan'. He said that during their training days, Belocqua asked if Pereira had indigenous heritage and made him ask his family members. Pereira found out that his grandparents were of Pataxo ancestry from Bahia, Brazil.
"When I told him [Belocqua], he was super happy and said: 'His strength, his appearance, everything indicated that he had something linked to indigenous culture.'... We worked on it and he gave us this nickname: Poatan. It would be a strong hand, that's how I explain it to everyone. Some people say stone hand, I actually got it tattooed on my hand."
Over the course of his combat sports career, Alex Pereira has been known for the power he has in his hands. His knockout of Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya are testaments to it.
In a ten-fight fight professional MMA career, Pereira has won eight bouts, out of which six have come via knockout.
Israel Adesanya predicts Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira at UFC 295
Alex Pereira is set to fight Jiri Prochazka for the undisputed light heavyweight belt at UFC 295 on Saturday, November 11, 2023. The fight will go down as the main event of the card in Madison Square Garden, New York City.
Pereira's arch-rival Israel Adesanya has shared his prediction for the fight on his YouTube channel, FREESTYLEBENDER. The two share an on-and-off beef, where they respect each other and also continue their trash-talking at the same time.
For the UFC 295 main event, Adesanya picked Jiri Prochazka to clinch a win over Alex Pereira.
Adesanya said:
"Pereira is a special human being, not just a fighter, special human being... He's got a special ability when putting people to sleep. He can do it to anyone, anyone... Jiri as well, special human being... It's a hard fight for both men, but it's a hard fight for Jiri because there's that time bomb. You can diffuse the bomb, that's the thing. You've gotta find out how to diffuse the bomb... Alex has got the bomb... Regardles, I'm going with Jiri Prochazka!"
Watch Adesanya's prediction for the main event below from 11:45 onwards:
