Alex Pereira has just been promoted to BJJ black belt by his coaches in the cage immediately after his stunning knockout win in the main event of UFC 300 on April 13th, 2024. Pereira was facing off against Jamahal Hill in the first defense of his light-heavyweight world championship and it was unlikely there was ever going to be much grappling seeing as neither man has a submission win on their professional MMA record. There was plenty of high-level grappling throughout the UFC 300 card anyway though, with several submission finishes and tons of exchanges on the ground.
It was just as well that fans weren’t going to expect any grappling in the main event of UFC 300, because the entire fight was contested on the feet. Both Pereira and Hill were happy to strike with one another and they each landed their fair share of shots over the first few minutes, but things quickly went downhill for Hill. It wasn’t long before Pereira found a home for a huge left hand and he dropped Hill at around the three-minute mark of their fight. He followed that up with some huge hammerfists before Herb Dean stepped in to call the fight off, and Pereira was declared the winner by knockout.
Although Alex Pereira didn’t actually need to use any grappling in his light-heavyweight title-defense at UFC 300, he was still awarded his BJJ black belt immediately after the fight ended. Pereira started out his combat sports career as an elite kickboxer but he has been working on his grappling a lot since transitioning to MMA. He’s obviously managed to improve his skills on the ground significantly since starting out and he had been a brown belt for around a year and a half coming into this fight, so it made sense that he might be due his promotion at some point soon.
Plinio Cruz confirmed the news that Alex Pereira had been promoted to BJJ black belt after winning his fight at UFC 300 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
