Alex Pereira is sharing a behind the scenes look at what it takes for the light heavyweight fighter to hit championship weight.
Pereira is set to fight Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 tonight (Saturday Mar. 8th, 2025) in Las Vegas. The imposing Brazilian looked a little gaunt stepping on the scale Friday morning, but made weight at 205 pounds. In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, the process was laid bare.
“Today is the first battle, I have to lose 4.3 kilos (9.6 pounds),” Pereira said. “We know it’s not easy, but everything is planned. I think it’s better than the other time. That time I was almost 5 kilos (11 pounds) in the same process.”
The team starts things off by basting Pereira down with alcohol-based gels which trick the body into sweating more. Then he layers up in a sweat suit and begins a workout of jogging and sparring. They strip him down and get him into a portable sauna box. Then it’s back into the sweat suit for more workout.
After repeating that numerous times they lay “Poatan” out on towels and wrap him in a thermal covering like a burrito.
“Our mission is to open the pores so the sweat can keep coming out, his coach Plinio Cruz explained. “He doesn’t always have to be working. Now we maintain the sweat coming out. Let him lay down a bit to relax the body from the cut and maintain sweating. And then repeat the process.”
“It’s always hard, but we work as a team. With him it’s calm because he doesn’t stay stressed out, he knows the difficulty, knows he has to get through this.”
It’s a family affair: the video shows his sons scraping moisture off his body with hotel key cards as it comes out of his pores. After a dunk in the bath, Pereira steps on the scale at 204.8 to the cheers of his team.
“It’s hard but on this weight, it was the best weight cut,” Pereira said, laying on the floor. “Also with the energy we have, there is no way things can go wrong.”
“People watching this video thinking ‘He’s dying!’” he added. “No, I’m tired. I have to rest … How’d I do this for middleweight? Damn.”
Does that sound like a man excited to return to 185? Maybe yes, maybe no. With Alex Pereira, something being difficult has never stopped him before.
