Despite Conor McGregor‘s withdrawal from UFC 303, Dana White & Co. managed to put up a stellar show for the fans courtesy of Alex Pereira. The champion, who last fought against Jamahal Hill at UFC 300, got ready to defend his light heavyweight title against Jiri Prockzaka despite the short notice. It was a rematch between the two fighters, but the result was no different from UFC 295 as UFC 303 also saw Pereira scoring a victory in the second round via KO/TKO. It seems that with his back-to-back victories, the 36-year-old has managed to win a lot of hearts in the UFC as he was recently compared to basketball legend Michael Jordan.

Speaking with his Good Guy/Bad Guy co-host, Daniel Cormier, Chael Sonnen went on a frenzied rant about how amazing a light heavyweight champion is. Sonnen seemed highly impressed by Pereira’s temperament and he didn’t shy away while praising the Brazilian fighter saying, “Pereira has proven just about everything he could do in such a short career 10,11,12 fights. But he has not had a dominant wrestler. He just hasn’t had that yet.”

He then proceeded to compare Pereira to MVP basketball player Michael Jordan saying, “am conceding the young man from Dagestan. I admit that he doesn’t have the background. I just think it might be one of those just one of those interesting things where there is not gonna be much left for us to discuss. Going to get a Michael Jordan-type realm where you are not watching him because you wanna know the outcome. You are watching him for his greatness.”

At this juncture, Sonnen and DC, much like everyone else in the UFC, are just uniting to see the legendary kickboxer in action. Combat sports veterans such as Teddy Atlas are already comparing ‘Chama’ to greats like Joe Louis and Mike Tyson owing to his fighting powers and technique. Pereira got showers of praise and even a bonus from Dana White. THE UFC CEO also believes that Alex Periera might become the new face of UFC since he brought almost a $15 million gate at UFC 303. 

Dana White is all praises for Pereira

‘Poatan’ defended his title twice in three months, took short-notice bouts, and won them. He saved the UFC303 card from being an absolute disaster and the UFC boss could not thank him enough. The Brazilian sensation met up with the UFC head behind the stage and got immense praise from the boss who even thanked him and gave him a huge bonus. He received a $ 303k bonus which was never made public.

Pereira’s coach Pilino Cruz had a conversation with Ariel Helwani and confirmed this news about the bonus. He said, “Yes he did. You know He was talking to Dana in the back, and they were talking about a bunch of stuff, and Dana said, ‘As a matter of fact, you won Performance of the Night And he said, ‘$303,000?’ He goes, ‘No, no, no, $50,000.”

Even though he had fought with a broken toe USC 300, he did not get the performance of the night. That is why this time the boss compensated and said, “You know what, man? I’m going to take care of you. You’ve got the $303,000.” White has also started giving him a similar stature to McGregor, who is considered one of the most bankable stars in the promotion.

Do you think the veterans are right in saying that Pereira is the new face of UFC and he is already a legend? Drop your views in the comments below.