AUDIO – KICKS BOOZE FOR KICKBOXING –
April 7, 2022 – I had no education, so I started thinking about what I was going to do. Since I was a hoodlum, I liked to start fights, I thought professional fighting could be a way out. It worked for a while. I became a national kickboxing champion while drinking. Then it got to a point where I couldn’t do it anymore.
“I didn’t drink for a while,” Pereira added. “I thought I had it under control. I went to a bar, I ordered one can of beer. I drank it. Cool. I ordered another one. My goal was to have two and go back home. I drank it and couldn’t control myself. I walked out of the bar in bad shape. That was back in 2012. From that point on, I knew I couldn’t control it. So I never put another drop of alcohol in my mouth. From that moment on, my life changed completely.”
In his last outing, Pereira (5-1) defeated Bruno Silva via unanimous decision, putting himself on a two-fight winning streak in the Octagon, with a knockout victory over Andreas Michailidis before that. The 34-year-old’s last loss happened in his mixed martial arts debut, when he got submitted by Quemuel Ottoni, back in October 2015.
