At UFC 281 in November of last year, Alex Pereira defeated Israel Adesanya via TKO after an impressive comeback. He only had eight MMA fights before he blitzed Adesanya with a torrent of strikes in the fifth round to win the title. Along with his achievements inside the ring, the Brazilian fighter is also proud of his native heritage. Alex Pereira, the current UFC middleweight champion, returned to the Pataxó tribe in Brazil with his newly earned title belt. Follow UFC News Updates with InsideSport.IN
Alex Pereira brought his title back to his Pataxó tribe in Brazil pic.twitter.com/y0ENaRFpGj
— MMA mania (@mmamania) January 6, 2023
Fans saw “Poatan” wearing his native headgear during the UFC 281 ceremonial weigh-ins. He wore headgear and facial paint to honor his native ancestry in the Pataxó tribe. The tribe is also honored by Pereira’s pre-fight walkout performance, which involves him pretending to shoot an arrow.
About the Alex Pereira Brazilian tribe
The Pataxó tribe is where Alex Pereira comes from. A little more than 12,000 members of the indigenous tribe live in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Furthermore, the tribe once spoke the now-extinct Pataxó language. Later, some of the terms from the dead language were preserved in Patxoh, a revived form, and Portuguese, which supplanted it.
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The indigenous group experienced unrest in the middle of the previous century. The native inhabitants were driven out of the forest, and their home territory primarily turned into private farms. As a result, they assimilated into the greater community and lost their indigenous identity.
Speaking with ESPN MMA, the former Glory champion acknowledged that his grandparents were indigenous and that his first kickboxing instructor had Native American ancestry. The Sao Paulo warrior, in particular, wants to aid the “forgotten” native population. As a result, he said, “I want to build a reputation for myself and use it in the future to help the indigenous people… I have the opportunity to assist the indigenous people with that [UFC platform’s media edge].
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