The 2022 Heavies' Awards - Breakthrough Fighter of the Year Winner: Alex Pereira

[SenorFranko]

Thanks for the thread @Jackonfire

It's gotta be Potan, what a year he's had. That fight with Adesanya was one of my favourite title fights this year. Edge of your seat the whole time and incredible finish.

 

[Post 2 Decision]

Jiri the GOAT

Winning UFC gold gave him legendary status, after already have a long, dominant, violent career overseas.

Poatan is nothing but a blip on the radar, who will be forgotten in a few years.

 

[PurpleStorm]

As mentioned earlier I voted for Alex Perreira. Shoutout to Larissa Pacheco too. Four victories in one year and dominated previously undefeated Harrison for the million dollar PFL belt. Then thanked her & offered a rematch - class act.

 

[PurpleStorm]

Thanks for the thread @Jackonfire

It's gotta be Potan, what a year he's had. That fight with Adesanya was one of my favourite title fights this year. Edge of your seat the whole time and incredible finish.

Totally. One of those fights where your eyeballs are glued to the screen because we all knew that Alex was capable of the KO. I’m an Izzy fan and it kinda bummed me out but credit where credit is due. Truly a breakthrough year for Perreira!

 

[PurpleStorm]

From Sherdog's front page article on breakthrough fighter of the year:

"Every year, we see a handful of fighters who seem to come from out of nowhere, breaking through to new competitive heights and fame. Whether they take the form of a little-heralded prospect rocketing to stardom, as Ciryl Gane did last year, or a well-known veteran who manages a shocking mid-career reinvention, like 2019 winner Jorge Masvidal, those breakthroughs are a reminder of the wonderful unpredictability of mixed martial arts, a challenge to our assumptions as fans and an inspiration to the next year’s crop of would-be superstars."

Good explanation.

Reminds me of this song.

 

[Gio]

Pereira isn’t unbelievable he was literally hired for the sole reason of fight Isreal. It was the only reason he was hired. He can intobge organization with shit tons of HYPE.

If you read my post again, I said his UFC run of winning the belt in only 4 fights, in only a year and 6 days, is an unbelievable feat. I didn't say Alex was. What he did is.

Check Sherdog rankings game tons of people predicted he’d be champ by the end of the year

Still unimaginable that he actually did it given his MMA credentials. He got a record of a DWCS participant, yet fought his way and beat the champ who was running laps in the division.

 

[Dirty Frank]

Pereira broke through like that song by The Doors.

 

[SenorFranko]

Totally. One of those fights where your eyeballs are glued to the screen because we all knew that Alex was capable of the KO. I’m an Izzy fan and it kinda bummed me out but credit where credit is due. Truly a breakthrough year for Perreira!

Yeah mate I loved it, definitely lived up to expectations. I like both fights so I did feel really bad for Izzy the way it played out and the history between them. I do think it's great to have a champ like Alex at the top of the division as well.

 

[Question]

I gotta go with Dolidze here even if he's not on the list.
Dude destroyed Daukaus and Hawes within a few months, then he took a short notice fight against Hermansson which he won with that nasty calf slicer position dropping brutal GnP to get the TKO win which put him in the top ten.
Honestly Pavlovich was a really close pick to put up here(really surprised he's not on the list), however I felt like Roman surprised me a lot more with how dangerous he can be since I did not see him getting in the top ten this soon.

Pereira deserves a shout too, but tbh I already got him for FOTY.

 

[mmuhr2]

+1 for Dolidze. Came back after a year off and racked up 4 highlight reel finishes in only 3 fights! (counting the sub and KO of Hawes separately, that poor bastard.)

 

[Dorkman]

Hard not to pick Pereira. Went from relative MMA rookie to UFC champion.

 

[Nobru]

Obvious Answer here. Expecting many "He's 185 GOAT" threads to be made by the end of 2023...

Im a true Anderson Silva fan and I consider him the GOAT. That said, Alex Pereira is the FIRST MW fighter I cant say Im positive Prime Andy would beat. In all honesty, considering Andy wouldnt take him down, Id actually have no favorites on this one. Andy would need a hell of a matrix day against this freak.
possibly one of the best possible fights to ever be held, all times. Only in videogames tho, unforch

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

It has to be Alex Pereira for me.. he had a great year and is still very new to MMA. Very impressive!

 

[Joshuaace]

+1 for Dolidze. Came back after a year off and racked up 4 highlight reel finishes in only 3 fights! (counting the sub and KO of Hawes separately, that poor bastard.)

And the face down calf slicer doesn't really qualify him for Sub or KO of the year. But it was absolutely one of the sickest finishing sequences in a long time.

 

[Dirty Frank]

Good explanation.

Reminds me of this song.

Ha! Beat me to it. Wasn't able to read your post before I posted mine

 

[HHJ]

And the face down calf slicer doesn't really qualify him for Sub or KO of the year. But it was absolutely one of the sickest finishing sequences in a long time.

Was unbelievable

 

[Joshuaace]

Was unbelievable

Me live: ewww, oooh, ohHH, AHHH, OWOWOWOW!

 

[PurpleStorm]

Congratulations to Alex Perreira who won this by a landslide. He got 97 votes, comprising 80.8% of the total votes.

 

[Iroh]

I didn't even vote on this poll. Not that it would have mattered. lol

Also I have no idea if poster of the year finale even has a thread yet.

 

[Iroh]

It's such an extremely big contrast with what we had with Conor. When Conor became champ it was a whole lot of, he only faced handpicked guys and Mendes had no camp, bla bla bla. But Alex who isn't as loud, but had a considerably easier road to the title and less dominant title win, gets a lot less of the same kind of criticism. Weird how that works, huh?