Pereira has been in and out of Glover’s gym countless times before. But this time around, he was 5 minutes late for his training session. So Poatan decided to empty his trophy case and bring all his belts to the gym so that Glover wouldn’t scold him. It proved to be a brilliant ploy as Teixeria could just smile it off.
While Poatan is a student of Teixeira in the gym, he is one of the greatest combat athletes of all time.
Pereira is one of only 9 fighters to win two different UFC weight classes and the first to win both the middleweight and light heavyweight belts. Before that, Poatan is the first and only fighter in the Glory kickboxing series to hold two titles simultaneously, also holding both middleweight and light heavyweight titles there.
He also won the Jungle Fight kickboxing middleweight title in 2012, the WAKO Pan-American K-1 85 kg tournament, the WGP kickboxing middleweight title in 2015, and the WGP 85 kg title in 2012. Pereira also won the Glory Middleweight Title Contender Tournament in 2014. All in all, that’s nine belts and if you counted during the video, there were nine belts there too although it can’t be confirmed if they represented the titles won as enumerated.
What is clear though is that Poatan is scheduled to headline UFC 300 on April 13, 2024, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is set to defend the UFC light-heavyweight championship against former champion Jamahal Hill.
Hill was the champion before Pereira but he had to relinquish the title after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon while playing basketball. That rendered him unable to defend the title and Pereira ended up fighting another former champion in Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 last November 2023 for the vacated belt. Poatan knocked out Prochazka inside two rounds.
Pereira is currently training for that fight in Glover Teixeira’s gym in Bethel, Connecticut. A former UFC light heavyweight champion himself, Glover has dedicated his time to training Pereira since he retired from the UFC. The Brazilian’s last UFC fight ended in a loss to Hill at UFC 283. That defeat has added more fuel to Poatan’s fire as he is also out to get revenge for his teacher.