Media A complete breakdown of Alex Pereira

[the combat analyst]

Alex periera Is a fighter who really need little introduction at this point. So I just want to get right into his arsenal and breaking him down.


Left hook


Alex Periera's left hook is his most dangerous and iconic weapon in his arsenal.

Unlike Joe Frazier, another fighter with a devastating left hook, pereira hook is thrown with much less telegraph but it still produces devastating results for the opponent.


I first want to go over the mechanics of periera's left hook that make it different from other left hooks, then I want to go the different ways pereira chooses to set up his dangerous left hook.


The mechanics of periera's left hook are unique. The main difference being that rather than striking straight across his opponent with his hook, Periera's hook is thrown with a more upward angle reminiscent of a body hook thrown upward to strike the liver.

Think of it as a combination between an uppercut and a left hook.

A prime example of Pereira using this is when he knocked out Israel Adesanya in their second kickboxing fight.





If you fast forwards to the ko you'll see Alex use his signature left hook but the path of his punch follows that upward hooking arc, so much so to the point where he almost lands his hook with his bottom two knuckles.

And even though Adesanya’s rear hand was raised to defend the punch, the awkward angle of Periera's left hook allowed for it to sneak through.


Now a key part in why Pereira is able to land his left hook so often is because he has a variety of ways that he chooses to set a trap for his opponent. The lead hook is a simple technique and because of its simplicity it is easily able to be applied in a variety of situations.


Against Sean Strickland, Pereira threw a series of jabs to Strickland's body. The point of these jabs was not to do damage but to draw out a reaction from Strickland.

After Strickland was conditioned to defend pereira's body jabs it was time for periera to spring his trap.

This time Pereira used what's called a directional feint. Meaning he started out throwing one strike to create an opening then changed path of the strike mid way to capitalize on the new opening.

An example of this would be the question mark kick. Beginning as a low front kick then changing mid way into a high roundhouse kick.


In this example Pereira begins to punch as a low body jab to get Strickland to lower his guard, then midway he changes the path of his punch into a devastating left hook, stunning Strickland and leading to Pereira knocking him out.





Floyd Mayweather can be seen using the exact same setup against Diego Corrales, scoring Mayweather a brutal knockdown.





Another example of Pereira setting up his left hook is in his only fight for LFA.

In this example Pereira throws a rear roundhouse kick at his opponent to create space. Then once his opponent advances forwards after his kick he catches them on the way in with a left hook.





There are plenty of other ways Pereira sets up his left hook. He may use crosses to the head or body to get his opponent to alter their guard creating an opening for his left hook.

He may also catch his opponent as they advance, striking them with what's called a check hook.

Like many fighters with great signature moves Pereira uses fairly simple methods to set up his signature move, but the real secret behind it is the variety of ways he has to catch his opponent with it. Rather than having only one method he has multiple methods to rely on. That way in case one fails he can move to another or he can combine the multiple methods together.

In conjunction with this is the simplicity of his setups. The left hook is a very simple and basic punch and because of this it's not hard to learn the punch or find methods to land it.

Periera's methods are simple and rarely leave him in a bad position if he fails to land.

 

[the combat analyst]

Calf kicks

Now another iconic move in Pereira's arsenal are his calf kicks as seen in this next video.



The overall thing to take away from Pereira's low kicks is how he minimizes telegraph as much as possible. In other words he takes away as much of the movement as possible making the kick harder to see because it travels such a tight path.



As said in the video above pereira eliminates as much preemptive movement as possible.
Think of it as a slice of meat in pereira's case he cuts away all of the extra fat from his kick leaving just enough left to cause damage.
Pereira will also not step his lead leg into his kicks and while it generates less power it also adds another element which makes the kick harder to see coming.
And Pereira's calf kicks really do follow the same ideals of other great leg kickers, but the difference is just the degree in which Pereira eliminates any form of telegraph.
Another benefit of Pereira's kicking style is the ease in which he can recover from a missed kick.
Because Pereira kicks are designed so heavily around minimizing telegraph and preemptive movement Pereira commits such little weight into his kicks allowing him to recover very quickly when a kick is missed.

This allows him to constantly maintain his position in front of his opponent so he can continue to pressure and corner them without skipping a beat because
of a missed kick.

 

[the combat analyst]

Other weapons

Periera's defense and guard


Periera fights behind a loose, relaxed guard.
His hands are lower and his shoulders are generally relaxed and not hunched up like in a traditional guard. Periera will also use a loose and subtle long guard. Unlike a traditional long guard where a fighter extends their lead arm but leaves their rear arm back covering their head. Pereira subtly extends both arms seemingly blindly. The point of the long guard is that it is meant to block and take away the force of blows by smothering their path, not giving the blow enough room to generate power.
But what stands out to me from Pereira's guard the most is just how little it changes from when he's on the offensive or defensive.
To the casual viewer it may just appear that Pereira is blindly extending his arms hoping to block something. But there is of course a method to his madness.

Pereira's defense as a whole is meant to accomplish one goal. Be as subtle as possible. In other words Pereira's defense is meant to be as small as possible. A few sayings I like to abide by is that good footwork is small footwork and also that good defense is small defense. And Pereira has both.
The reason why small defense matters so much is that it is meant to be so small that it makes it hard for your opponent to find out what you leave open when you defend, and it also leaves you in perfect position to return with offense. By rarely retreating backwards more than two steps and having a subtle guard that rarely needs to be adjusted, Pereira can stay right in position to counter. And this is one of the main reasons why Israel adesanya struggles with pereira so much.
Notice how Pereira rarely misses a beat when he blocks a kick or punch, he never overreacts when he's defending. He makes sure to defend any strike by moving just enough out of the way so that it misses. No more no less. This way he can always maintain a certain level of distance where he's just out of his opponents reach. And this allows him to blend offense and defense together seamlessly because he stays at a range where he barely has to move to accomplish one or the other.
On top of this Pereria rarely needs to shift his hand positioning to defend an attack, and on top of that he also rarely gives up any space for free. When backing up Pereira will only take one or two steps backwards and then stand his ground if need be.
The overall goal of his defense is to stay in a position where both offense and defense can be easily applied and a certain distance can
be maintained.

 

[the combat analyst]

Now I'm going to update this thread later but let me know what you guys think so far and what you want to see next from me

 

[2004 account]

Alex periera Is a fighter who really need little introduction at this point. So I just want to get right into his arsenal and breaking him down.


Left hook


Alex Periera's left hook is his most dangerous and iconic weapon in his arsenal.

Unlike Joe Frazier, another fighter with a devastating left hook, pereira hook is thrown with much less telegraph but it still produces devastating results for the opponent.


I first want to go over the mechanics of periera's left hook that make it different from other left hooks, then I want to go the different ways pereira chooses to set up his dangerous left hook.


The mechanics of periera's left hook are unique. The main difference being that rather than striking straight across his opponent with his hook, Periera's hook is thrown with a more upward angle reminiscent of a body hook thrown upward to strike the liver.

Think of it as a combination between an uppercut and a left hook.

A prime example of Pereira using this is when he knocked out Israel Adesanya in their second kickboxing fight.





If you fast forwards to the ko you'll see Alex use his signature left hook but the path of his punch follows that upward hooking arc, so much so to the point where he almost lands his hook with his bottom two knuckles.

And even though Adesanya’s rear hand was raised to defend the punch, the awkward angle of Periera's left hook allowed for it to sneak through.


Now a key part in why Pereira is able to land his left hook so often is because he has a variety of ways that he chooses to set a trap for his opponent. The lead hook is a simple technique and because of its simplicity it is easily able to be applied in a variety of situations.


Against Sean Strickland, Pereira threw a series of jabs to Strickland's body. The point of these jabs was not to do damage but to draw out a reaction from Strickland.

After Strickland was conditioned to defend pereira's body jabs it was time for periera to spring his trap.

This time Pereira used what's called a directional feint. Meaning he started out throwing one strike to create an opening then changed path of the strike mid way to capitalize on the new opening.

An example of this would be the question mark kick. Beginning as a low front kick then changing mid way into a high roundhouse kick.


In this example Pereira begins to punch as a low body jab to get Strickland to lower his guard, then midway he changes the path of his punch into a devastating left hook, stunning Strickland and leading to Pereira knocking him out.





Floyd Mayweather can be seen using the exact same setup against Diego Corrales, scoring Mayweather a brutal knockdown.





Another example of Pereira setting up his left hook is in his only fight for LFA.

In this example Pereira throws a rear roundhouse kick at his opponent to create space. Then once his opponent advances forwards after his kick he catches them on the way in with a left hook.





There are plenty of other ways Pereira sets up his left hook. He may use crosses to the head or body to get his opponent to alter their guard creating an opening for his left hook.

He may also catch his opponent as they advance, striking them with what's called a check hook.

Like many fighters with great signature moves Pereira uses fairly simple methods to set up his signature move, but the real secret behind it is the variety of ways he has to catch his opponent with it. Rather than having only one method he has multiple methods to rely on. That way in case one fails he can move to another or he can combine the multiple methods together.

In conjunction with this is the simplicity of his setups. The left hook is a very simple and basic punch and because of this it's not hard to learn the punch or find methods to land it.

Periera's methods are simple and rarely leave him in a bad position if he fails to land.

Gave a like just for the izzy out cold pic

 

[markg171]

All you need to understand about Pereira is that he keeps such a weird and loose guard and stance because he wants you to think he's left you an opening. He's not leaving one, he's making you leave one when you go for it.

So long as his reflexes and instincts remain sharp it's going to continue to work well as he's the way better striker than 99% of people. He can get a little overzealous, but unless you're Izzy and down 4 fights with nothing left to lose how many people are taking that all or nothing shot to try and turn things around against him without at least a little fear and hesitation?

I'm more curious how he'll adapt once he starts to slow down. Working with Glover should prevent him from trying to rely so heavily on reaction time and more fundamentals, skills, and instincts.

 

[BangBang]

Thanks for the above. Great effort!!

Can we have a complete breakdown of Belal Mohamed please?