Alex Pereira breaks down UFC 303 knockouts, reacts to Magomed Ankalaev and Jamahal Hill's calls

Alex Pereira and his team left no stone unturned when it came to pre-match planning and it paid off.

A little film study in the final moments played a big role in Pereira's second successful defense of his UFC light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 303 on Saturday in Las Vegas. In his rematch with Jiri Prochazka, Pereira again finished the Czech fighter with strikes, but this time he caught him with a head kick that marked the beginning of the end.

Pereira had rocked Prochazka hard at the end of the first round and landed a high kick at the start of the second, which he later explained was orchestrated by his coaches after watching Prochazka warm up on Instagram earlier that evening.

“Actually, I was talking to Plinio, one of our coaches, in the dressing room and he showed me a video of Giri warming up,” Pereira said through a Portuguese translator at his post-match press conference. “I could see that he was going to counter the kick to the calf, to defend and counter, but I told Plinio that the timing was wrong, that the timing was not good.

“So I could see he was so focused on not getting kicked that he was keeping his hands down and exposing his head, so I told him I was going to try a high kick.”

He tried Pereira's high kick, which landed beautifully, earning him two wins over his respected rival, and while Prochazka is no stranger to highlight-reel knockouts himself, he has yet to figure out how to beat Pereira with punches (or kicks, in this case).

The two were quickly added together in the new main event of UFC 303 after Conor McGregor's toe injury forced the cancellation of his original main event bout against Michael Chandler. Pereira and Prochazka will forever be linked when talking about fighters of this era, and that bond hasn't been lost on the champion.

“I was focused,” Pereira said of his intense standoff with Prochazka in the cage before the fight. “I was watching an opponent who was focused, a fighter. That gave me even more motivation to do what I did.”

A similar standoff occurred in their first bout, which also ended with Pereira catching Prochazka in the stand-up. When asked if he'd made any adjustments between the two bouts, Pereira said there hadn't been any dramatic changes, just steady improvement.

“No, nothing new on my part,” Pereira said. “I think I'm still in the evolution of MMA. It just keeps evolving and evolving. He's older and he's been training longer, so maybe [knew] Things used to be a lot better, but now they're not.”

Fans are eager to know what's next for Pereira, who has already won UFC titles at light heavyweight and middleweight and could become the first three-division champion in UFC history by moving up to heavyweight. Pereira said he plans to take some time off before deciding on his next move.

But his rivals continue to criticize him, including presumptive world number one Magomed Ankalaev and former opponent Jamahal Gil, both of whom took to social media to comment after Saturday's main event.

“Everybody deserves it, but I'm not the one asking for it,” Pereira said of Ankalaev's challenge. “I need to talk to Dana White.”

Asked again if he wanted to fight Ankalaev, he added: “Anyone.”

To Hill, Pereira gave a shorter response: “OK.”