SALT LAKE CITY — This Saturday the Delta Center will be home to Salt Lake City's third UFC event. UFC 307 is headlined by the light heavyweight champ, Alex Pereira. He's been training at a gym, The Pit, right here in Utah.
Pereira is on a 4-fight win streak with 3 straight knockouts and he has a chance to do it again in front of the Salt Lake City crowd.
FOX 13's Andrea Urban spoke exclusively with Pereira during his training, and he said he's excited to put on a show in Utah.
"I'm feeling great, been training here in Utah and this was the last real hard training of the camp, Sean Strickland sees what I'm made of and I'm really expecting to put on a show October 5th," said Pereira, " the main thing is to inspire people."
About 10 years ago, Pereira worked in a tire shop in Brazil and now he is the champion of the world.
"I'm living in a good moment right now, doing good things, getting good results, I have a good team around me. The main thing is I want to show people that if they work hard and discipline themselves, they can overcome and reach places they could never imagine," said Pereira.
He adds, "10 years ago I started training, I thought about if one day I could be a world champion when I became one, I quit drinking and I just wanted to inspire people, that you can reach anything you want to do in life."
Pereira has indigenous ancestry from the Pataxo tribe. He proudly represents his culture by donning face paint and a headdress to the UFC weigh-ins.
"It's very important to me to show warrior culture of my people, back in the day the warriors would go out and hunt their food, robing to their families and provide for them," said the champ, "I do that in a different way right now, like I fight and provide for my people."
He is excited to take the octagon on Saturday because he is confident in his training, he connected it to studying hard for a test, you get a high level of confidence.
Pereira's motto is "Chama!" which translates to "Let's go!"
