I am not what you'd call a "CNN guy," but I check in here and there to see what they're pushing. I went on their website and came across this story on Michel Pereira.
This is an article written by Harmeet Kaur. Dont know who he is, but even if he's barely a fan and was assigned to cover a story from the fight, he got it wrong. It seems like he was shown a short video of Michel's acrobatics in round 1 (which the crowd did appreciate, to be fair), and then wrote a story about it. He did write that Connelly walked away as "champion," so maybe he's not a fan at all. Regardless, this is a botch.
Look at that first paragraph about how he won over the crowd lol.
There's no way this journalist watched this fight. There's no way someone watches that fight and decides to write this story (unless, of course, it was a calculated move that they figured might hurt Trump in some way.)
The mainstream masses with no mma interest would definitely be intrigued by someone doing backflips in a UFC fight- even I am intrigued by it.
Having said that, the mainstream masses would be even more intrigued by one of the best general underdog stories and UFC debuts ever. Furthermore, the crowd was rocking for the hometown hero. He "brought the house down," as they say.