The COVID-19 global pandemic has led to some radical alterations in fight preparation. Chris Weidman did not sparring of any sort. At one point, Roxanne Modafferi stood her mattress up against a wall and used it as an impromptu heavy bag. But no one took training into as unusual direction as has welterweight prospect Michel Pereira from Brazil, who fights Zelim Imadaev at UFC Vegas 9 on Saturday.

“I train new things every time,” said Pereira at the media day, as transcribed by Nick Baldwin for The Source. “I try to get to know different strategies and different games. For this event in particular, I trained at a farm with animals. So I was running around with animals. I always try to train in different places and get to know different things, so every time I step in the Octagon, I can bring something new and put on a show.”

“I trained with cows and working on taking them down and running with horses. I had different experiences with different animals and just tried to work on different strategies.”

Pereira had one of flashiest league debuts in memory vs. Danny Roberts, attempting a Rolling Thunder kick, Showtime Kicks, and a Superman Punch, before ending it with a Performance of the Night winning flying knee. However, Pereira lost his next fight via Unanimous Decision to Tristan Connelly; good news, it was the Fight of the Night. And in his latest fight, Pereira was disqualified after landing an illegal knee on Diego Sanchez.

However, nothing is going to stop Demolidor (it means demolisher, and the is the term used in Brazil for the Marvel Comics’ character Daredevil) from fighting in his usual wild style.

Imadaev from Moscow, Russia, lost his league debut via majority decision to Max Griffin, and then was stopped by Danny Roberts in his second fight. For Imadaev, a third fight would send the 25-year-old back to the minor leagues of MMA to try to put together another streak. Imadaev entered the UFC with a 7-0 record, all finishes, five of them in Round 1. 

Expect a spectacular fight.