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View Full Version : After upset of Michel Pereira at UFC Vancouver, Tristan Connelly calls him ‘perfect opponent’



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09-15-2019, 12:28 PM
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9zNmxlLtAg800enOVJsnblXjW94=/0x0:2880x1920/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65248937/083_Michel_Pereira_x_Tristan_Connelly.0.jpg Michel Pereira and Tristan Connelly | Esther Lin, MMA Fighting VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The stars were aligned for Michel Pereira (https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/4964/michel-pereira) to follow up on his outstanding Octagon debut this past May.
With a series of flips and tricks and a fantastic knockout of Danny Roberts (https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/171/daniel-roberts), “Demolidor” established himself as one to watch in the welterweight division and smart money said that he was going to run through his next foe, late replacement Tristan Connelly (https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/5090/tristan-connelly).
There were signs of trouble on Friday when Pereira came in a pound heavy, but once fight night rolled around he came out looking to put on a show just as he did against Roberts.
Connelly was having none of it.
The 33-year-old Vancouver native outworked and grounded Pereira for the better part of three rounds, winning a unanimous decision and making an immediate impact in the UFC in front of his home crowd at UFC Vancouver (https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1060/ufc-fight-night-vancouver) at Rogers Arena. Afterwards, Connelly agreed that the stage was set for something spectacular, only it turned out to be for him, not Pereira.
“He was the perfect opponent,” Connelly said at the evening’s post-fight press conference (https://youtu.be/5LvYYSf0bQg). “Super-exciting, he likes to throw the rolling thunder, the front flip kick. It’s called rolling thunder, I got to steal his thunder tonight.”
Fighting out of Checkmat Vancouver, Connelly credited the capoeira practitioners he works with for preparing him for Pereira’s flashy approach. Though Pereira broke out much of his signature offense, most of it fell harmlessly short of its target and Connelly never looked rushed or panicked.
Even the size difference didn’t seem to concern Connelly, who typically competes at 155 pounds and as the fight progressed, his confidence only grew.
“You can’t stop against him and you can’t back up against him,” Connelly said. “Those are two things that I knew, like, I’ve been training with capoeira guys for a long time and they’re all like, ‘Man, what he’s trying to do is get you to freeze so he can hit ya.’ I just knew I had to be in his face. I was a little worried about the size initially and his early power, he hit me with a clean punch in the first round. I was like, ‘Eh.’
“When I wrapped my arms around him, it didn’t feel all that much stronger. I was like, ‘Okay, I can do this. He’s going to keep forward,’ and my confidence raised the longer the fight went.”
Asked if he was already feeling better about the matchup when Pereira missed weight, Connelly pointed to that error as showing “weakness.” It was only on Monday that Connelly was officially told he would be needed to step in for Sergey Khandozhko (https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/4987/sergey-khandozhko) after visa issues forced Khandozhko to withdraw and even with no time to prepare and a bout well outside of his natural weight, Connelly signed on the dotted line.
As it turns out, it was well worth it. In addition to his own show and win money, Connelly took 20 percent of Pereira’s purse because of the weigh-in gaffe and he and Pereira won Saturday’s Fight of the Night award. With Pereira ineligible to collect a bonus because he failed to beat the scale, it was Connelly who was given a total of $100,000 in bonus money.
Pereira was billed as the thrilling A-side in this matchup, but Connelly knew if he stayed the course, the results would speak for themselves.
“I knew I wasn’t gonna do any show like him,” Connelly said. “I’m a fighter, if doing backflips was what was important in fighting, I’d be great at backflips. But I couldn’t do one to save my life. I practice punching people, choking people, and kicking people, because that’s what seems to work in most of the fights I watch.”


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