‘I’ve Fought Alex Pereira and There’s a Way to Avoid His Ungodly Power”

In 2021, Alex Pereira made his UFC debut, and ever since his arrival, he has been tipped to be the hardest puncher in all of MMA.

‘Poatan’ has finished seven of his nine UFC wins up to this point via KO, and while the amount of power he carries in his hands is apparent to combat sports fans around the world, his former opponents and referees who have been in the Octagon with him while he is competing have been shocked at his level of power by going off of things such as the sound of his shots as well as the impact and damage they cause.

Following the Brazilian’s TKO victory over Khalil Rountree Jr at UFC 307, one of the best and most experienced referees in MMA, Marc Goddard, described Pereira’s power as “ungodly” and revealed that in all his years of refereeing fights, he has never seen a fighter with such devastating and terrifying power. Despite Pereira having over 30 KO victories across several different combat sports, one of his former opponents has claimed that while ‘Poatan’ does hit very hard, there is a way to avoid and reduce the power he carries.

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Dustin Jacoby Believes There is a Way to Avoid Alex Pereira’s Power

Jacoby and Pereira competed against each other in kickboxing in 2014

In 2014, at Glory 14: Zagreb, Alex Pereira knocked out Dustin Jacoby with his trademark brutal left hook to win the Glory Middleweight Contender Tournament. Since that fight happened, both Pereira and Jacoby have made names for themselves in the world of MMA, ‘Poatan’ on a superstar level, whereas Jacoby is now considered a steady and capable light heavyweight fighter. During a recent interview with Inside Fighting, Jacoby reflected on his 2014 showdown with Pereira and spoke about the Brazilian’s “ungodly” power, however, he insisted that there is a way to limit and avoid his power, even though he got knocked out.

Jacoby said the following to Inside Fighting:

“Where I made a downfall is he just put full attack mode on me and and I tried going attack mode back and keeping up with him, instead of letting the fight slow down a little bit, recover, let him kind of gas himself out, do a little bit of wearing down on him.”

Alex Pereira & Dustin Jacoby’s professional MMA records (as of 20/05/25)
	Alex Pereira	Dustin Jacoby
Fights	15	30
Wins	12	20
Losses	3	9
Draws	0	1

Although Jacoby’s claim that Pereira’s power can be limited by taking him into deep waters and tiring him out may seem silly given the fact he got knocked out, his claim does hold merit as we saw exactly that in Pereira’s fight against Khalil Rountree at UFC 307 as the fight got taken into the later rounds and ‘Poatan’ had to rely on his shot selection and skill instead of putting Rountree out with one singular shot.

While Pereira still, of course, carries “ungodly” power, trying to wear him out and take him into the later rounds may be a tactic some of his future opponents try and employ.