Introduction
Pereira is an odd fighter, exceptionally tall for the weight class. Known specifically for one punch, the left hook. And, unlike his wins over Izzy, his left hook is legit.
All be told I’d forgotten about the upcoming match Between Pereira and Adesanya so this profile is going to be less about how I see that matchup playing out and more about the general style and specific techniques employed by Periera.
I’ve mentioned Pereiras left hook already but rather than directly looking at this punch I first want to take a look at his stance, the guard he uses and how he uses his height in an effort to understand why he’s able to use his left hook in such devastating fashion in the first place.
Before I go into the breakdown I feel I should first point out that Pereira is an extremely inconsistent fighter. In some fights he seems razor sharp with a laser focus and many other cliches. His stance and guard are strong and he focuses on his left hook and rear roundhouse which wins him fights. Other fights he takes rounds off, lazily traipsing around the ring forgoing his effective left hook for a full round of ineffective axe kicks to the leg (vs Abena) He’s also a fan of spinning strikes which he seems to lack the flexibility for as well as them not tying into any other aspect of his game. To date I’ve not seen him land an effective spinning strike in any of his fights, kickboxing or MMA. I’m not going to focus on this for the remainder of the article and instead highlight what he does well and what I find interesting. I felt I should note his inconsistencies though in order to not paint a false portrayal of the man.
Mummy guard
Pereira towers above most in his weight class. At 6’4 he tends to have a significant height advantage over the majority of his opponents. Over time this has led to Perira adopting a tall ‘mummy guard’ Which emphasises hand fighting, parries and forearm blocks as defensive weapons.
The most famous example of a ‘mummy guard’ is George Foreman’s guard (Named by Ali, stating that he looks like a mummy lumbering around the ring) The ‘mummy guard’ has a fighter hold their arms high and far to the side of their head ( A lot of muay thai fighters take on this stance, as well as Ben Rothwell in MMA) The high and wide arms, and in this case, coupled with perieras height, make it very hard to land effective hooks. The arms have a tendency to catch the thrown hook before it reaches the intended target. The forearm of the guarding arm catches the fist or bicep of the thrown punch (Forearm blocks). Being tall already makes it harder for a hook to reach the head and combined with the guard very few fighters throw hooks at pereira to begin with.
Pereiras specific variations
Perieras variation is different from Foremans in a few important ways. Periera fights with a square stance and his weight slightly loaded onto his front foot. Both of these slight adjustments in posture and stance are what allows Periera to throw such a fast and powerful lead hook.
The squared shoulders means that the lead hand is essentially ‘cocked and loaded’. In a typical boxing stance the lead shoulder must be pulled back in order to add power to the punch. This motion gives the punch more space to rotate further and generate more power. Starting with the lead shoulder back lets Periera throw a powerful strike without the tell of moving into position.
It’s a similar story with the lead leg. In a typical boxing stance where the weight is disrupted 50/50 between the front and back legs. The fighter will typically shift more of their weight onto the front foot in order to better push off of it to add power into the punch. Pereiras lead leg is already loaded and ready to be pushed off of for maximum force production.
Hand fighting
A wide arm stance leaves an opening straight down the centre and, like the rebels attacking the death star, opponents will look to exploit this by attacking straight down the centreline.
Of course, this is to be expected and an experienced ‘mummy guard’ fighter, which Pereira is, has answers to this problem. The first layer of defence is knowledge. Periera knows fighters will be attacking down the centreline and the first step to a successful defence is knowing what’s coming. His second layer is once again his height. The attacking fighter will have to make larger, more obvious movements in order to close the distance letting pereira see what’s coming and giving him the time he needs to decide if he’s going to move out of range, roll or lean with the shot, or, what I find most interesting, apply his wide range of parries, hand fighting and posts.
Hand fighting in general is an overlooked strategy for defence in MMA. While not as flashy as slips and rolls, one of the safest and most effective methods of defence is to stop your opponent punching in the first place.
Peiras go to respond to a jab is a rear handed parry. A parry is a small flick of the wrist that connects with the opponent’s fist or wrist, hit with just enough force to knock the punch off course. A parry is done with as little motion as possible in order not to render the parrier open (as seen in Lawler vs woodly) while still knocking the punch off course.
When a fighter has had their punch knocked off course there is a small period of time where their chin is exposed and their weight is pitched forward. This opening is one of the many that Pereira is looking for. Here he’ll throw his already coiled lead hook to the now exposed side of his opponent’s head. Sometimes also pivoting out to his lead side in what’s known as a check hook in order to break off the line of offence.
Peiera will also take the initiative and cover the opponents lead hand with his own. By having the ‘high hand’ position, meaning his hand literally on top off his opponents, it creates a physical barrier that the opponent can not jab through or hook around (There is still danger while reaching to cover the hand and if distance is not managed correctly it’s possible to miss the hand and leave yourself open. This is exactly how Strickland lost his last remaining brain cell against Periera, by marching forward with his chin out unthinkingly reaching for perieras lead)
Periera will use this to stop his opponent from using their lead as well as forcing their arm down to, once again, throw the left hook in the exact way described in the parry.
His third option is using what’s called a stiff arm defence or posting. A stiff arm, or post, is when a fighter places their locked out arm on their opponents shoulder, or bicep. Like covering the lead hand this once again creates a barrier that the opponent will be unable to strike through. Peira tends to use this to cover his retreats. For example posting on the opponents lead shoulder to stop them launching offence while he uses his footwork to retreat. Or he’ll use his rear post to stop his opponent closing in after he threw his own rear straight, leaving it out to stop the opponent pushing forward after the strike.
Summary
In summary Periera is more than just a left hook and I hope this gave a little insight into that. He uses his height very well defensively and uses a adapted mummy guard coupled with good hand fighting to land whipping left hooks.
Outro
That concludes part one of the article. In part two we will be looking more at his offensive options which, to be honest, are why I started writing this series. What really surprised me was Alex’s defensive game and noticing that he does a lot of his best work on the counter using the aforementioned defences to set up his left hook.