Michel Pereira: Sparring Sessions with Sean Strickland Are 'Always Crazy'

Michel Pereira will take a six-bout winning streak into his fight against Michal Oleksiejczuk on Saturday at UFC 299.

The pairing will mark the Brazilian’s second middleweight appearance within the Las Vegas-based promotion.

"The best thing I could do in my life was go up to [185 pounds],” Pereira told Sherdog.com. “Today I’m living and and training much better. At welterweight, I had to lose more than [40 pounds] in two months for every fight. Today is easy.”

Pereira’s opponent, Oleksiejczuk, has won three of his last four Octagon appearances — all by first-round knockout or technical knockout.

"I couldn’t learn how to say his name until [recently],” Pereira said. “This [Polish] guy doesn't kick, [land takedowns] or fight on the ground, but his left hand is really dangerous. I'm totally aware of that, but I think I’m a better boxer than him, and my goal is knock him out. But I’m an MMA fighter. I’m prepared to do what is necessary to get my hand raised. My main goal is to get a place in the middleweight rankings.”

Pereira, who is a black belt in karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, is confident that the level of sparring he’s received at Xtreme Couture will propel him to his second middleweight victory.

"Each sparring partner brings you more trouble in a different area, and that makes you evolve as an MMA fighter,” he said. “I’m training with former champions like Jamahal Hill and Sean Strickland and top guys like Chris Curtis and Caio Borralho. By the way, my sparrings with Strickland are always crazy. It’s rare that we don’t knock each other down or leave the sparring [session] bleeding.”

Prior to his last fight, a first-round TKO of Andre Petroski, Pereira entered the cage with Israel’s national flag. While that was in part to show support to some friends from the area, the Brazilian doesn’t plan on making a similar statement at UFC 299.

"I have friends in Palestine and Israel. My fight was seven days after Hamas terrorist attacks and, as a Christian, I decided to pay homage to Israel, but since then me and my family started to be threatened via social media,” he said. “I don’t want to get involved in that anymore.”

This time, Pereira intends to put on a dance show during his entrance.

"I tried to convince UFC to allow my cousin to enter with me dancing, but they didn’t allow it, so I had to cut a cornerman in order to bring my cousin with me,” said Pereira, without offering further details on who was removed from his corner.

Pereira is very popular in Brazil due to his penchant for creating new striking techniques with unusual names such as Revestrés, Ptionation, Canga-Leitão and Mão de Bomba (Bomb Hands). Pereira doesn’t expect to unveil any new techniques this time around, however.

"I created a lot of crazy stuff already. It's time to try to use it to entertain the fans, not create new ones,” he said.

After fighting just once in 2023, “Demolidor” revealed that he will make himself available to compete at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro on May 4 if all goes well against Oleksiejczuk.

"I would love to fight for Brazilian audience,” Pereira said. “If I leave that fight without injuries, I’ll be available for UFC 301. As a Las Vegas resident I also would love to compete at the Sphere [in September]. But that's not my business. I’m a UFC employee. Whenever they need me, if I’m healthy, I'll be ready.”