Alex Pereira Plays Tourist in Belgrade Before UFC Night
The 39-year-old Brazilian watched Power Slap 22 from the front row at Belgrade Arena, after a walk around Kalemegdan and dinner in Skadarlija. He is on the guest list for Saturday.
Alex Pereira is in Belgrade, and he left the gloves at home. The 39-year-old Brazilian, one of the most recognisable faces in the UFC, spent Thursday, July 30, in the front rows of Belgrade Arena watching Power Slap 22. Mondo reported his arrival the same evening at 9.40 p.m.
Pereira did not come here to fight. He is not on the card for the UFC event Belgrade Arena hosts on Saturday, August 1, but he has been announced as a guest. The man who does step into the cage that night is Serbia’s Uros Medic, against American Daniel Rodriguez.
Kalemegdan first, then Skadarlija
The day before the Arena looked like a tourist’s day out with a well-briefed guide. The order went like this:
- a walk around Kalemegdan Fortress
- a tavern in Skadarlija, Belgrade’s old bohemian quarter
- a front-row seat at Power Slap 22 in Belgrade Arena
His guide around the city was Nina Drama, described by Serbian outlets as a UFC reporter. The photograph taken at Kalemegdan, under a Serbian flag hung above the fortress gate, was circulating on local social media before Pereira ever reached the Arena.
The choice of event was not random either. Power Slap is a slap-fighting promotion run by Dana White, the same man who runs the UFC, which makes UFC fighters regular guests at its shows.
Who is Poatan?
Pereira picked up the nickname Poatan in kickboxing, where he was a two-time world champion before he ever set foot in a cage. His switch to mixed martial arts went faster than most: he took the UFC middleweight belt by beating Israel Adesanya, then added the light heavyweight title.
That put him on the short list of fighters who have ruled two different UFC divisions, which is why a man sitting in the stands drew as much attention as some of the fighters working that night.
Where his career stands now
Pereira is no longer a light heavyweight. In October 2025 he knocked Magomed Ankalaev out in the first round at UFC 320 to take the light heavyweight belt back, then moved up a division. In June 2026, at the UFC White House event, he lost by TKO to Ciryl Gane in the heavyweight class.
The vacated light heavyweight title went to Carlos Ulberg, who beat Jiri Prochazka for it and is the current champion of that division.
There is talk of another meeting between Pereira and Ankalaev, the former light heavyweight champion. On July 21, Ankalaev said he would follow Pereira up to heavyweight. If that fight is made, it will be their third, a trilogy rather than a rematch: the first came at UFC 313, the second at UFC 320.
Why this visit reads differently
Until now, the Belgrade UFC story has been a local one. We have written about Serbian public figures turning up at the Arena and about fighters being hosted by Red Star Belgrade. All of it was the home crowd gathering around a visiting show.
Pereira flipped the direction. A fighter from the very top of the UFC arrived with no bout to prepare for, spent two days as a tourist and sat in the audience at someone else’s event. For Belgrade it means Saturday’s card will have names worth watching outside the cage as well as inside it, and Pereira’s is on the guest list.
