Alex Pereira Lands At #6 In Middleweight Pile Following UFC 276 KO Win Over Sean Strickland
Off the back of his stunning opening round knockout victory against Sean Strickland last Saturday on the main card of UFC 276, red-hot middleweight contender, Alex Pereira has made his debut in the top-15 of the division-clinching the #6 rank at 185lbs.
Alex Pereira, a former two-weight GLORY Kickboxing champion, featured on the main card of last weekend’s high-profile International Fight Week card at UFC 276, stopping Strickland in the first round to earn his third Octagon triumph.
Circling the North Carolina native onto a thunderous left hook, Pereira dropped Strickland before rendering the contender unconscious with a pair of follow-up right hands.
The victory came as the Sao Paulo striker’s third in the UFC since his November promotional debut, adding to a flying knee finish against Andreas Michailidis, and a unanimous decision win over compatriot, Bruno Silva.
Alex Pereira lands at #6 in the official middleweight rankings
Expected to challenge undisputed middleweight titleholder, Israel Adesanya for divisional gold next, Pereira has landed at #6 in the official division rankings update, behind Derek Brunson, Paulo Costa, and Marvin Vettori – who all received climbs as Strickland slipped to #7 off the back of his first round knockout defeat.
Following his hard-fought unanimous decision win over Uriah Hall, surging Brazilian grappling maestro, Andre Muniz managed to capture the #10 rank at 185lbs, cracking the top-10 for the first time in his promotional tenure.
Moving to #3 at featherweight following his recent jump, Josh Emmett continues to ride momentum following his close, UFC Austin win against Calvin Kattar late last month. Ipswitch striker, Arnold Allen also continued his climb in a shuffle, sitting at joint-#5 alongside Kattar.
In a random shuffle at bantamweight, Ricky Simon moved to #11 in place of former lightweight champion, Frankie Edgar – with the former slated to fight Jack Shore at UFC Long Island.
Defeating Jessica Eye and sending the one-time title challenger into retirement, Maycee Barber made the leap from #13 to #10 at flyweight to boot.
Off the back of his one-sided co-headlining loss to featherweight king, Alexander Volkanovski, former titleholder, Max Holloway slipped to #8 in the official pound-for-pound pile, as did Jon Jones, with the former light heavyweight kingpin, sliding to #11 amid his term of inactivity.
Division champions, Aljamain Sterling, and Jiri Prochazka also climbed in the pound-for-pound rankings, as well as former interim lightweight titleholder, Dustin Poirier – who managed to secure himself the #6 rank.
