Dana White admits his initial judgment of Alex Pereira was completely wrong

Alex Pereira successfully defended his light heavyweight crown against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303 on 29 June. The Brazilian, who entered the promotion almost three years ago, has become arguably the biggest active star in the sport.

Pereira's kickboxing rivalry with former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was a large factor in the UFC's decision to sign him. However, following his recent victory over Prochazka, even the promotion's CEO Dana White admitted that he did not expect 'Poatan' to be so successful in the octagon.

The 36-year-old has had nine total UFC fights, with five of those being for either the middleweight or light heavyweight title.

White appeared in front of the media following the conclusion of the main event, where he shared immense praise for the Brazilian, saying this:

"Especially when you have a guy coming in from kickboxing. Has this long kickboxing career and is older, coming into the UFC. I think the exact opposite [of what Pereira has shown]. This guy is not going to do very well here. He's going to get taken down, smashed, submitted, all that kind of stuff. But man, was I wrong."

Watch Dana White discuss Alex Pereira below:

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Alex Pereira saw opening for head kick after seeing Jiri Prochazka's warm-up video

Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka went to war for a second time at UFC 303 in a highly anticipated rematch.

With 'Poatan' having defeated the Czech via KO at UFC 295, fans were eager to see if the Brazilian could continue his almost-surreal dominance in the promotion, or if Prochazka could exact revenge and set up a thrilling trilogy bout.

However, after having dropped the former champion with several seconds left in Round 1, the 36-year-old opened up the second round with a sharp switch high kick that hurt his opponent badly, and the fight was stopped shortly after.

The light heavyweight champion's coach has now revealed that they noticed an opening for the head kick after watching Prochazka warming up in the locker room on Instagram, and said this:

"We were browsing on Instagram... The way that [Prochazka] was doing what he assumed was the correct block for the calf kick was wrong. I showed it to Alex, he goes, 'When he's doing this he puts his hands down. I'm going to kick this guy in the head.'"

Watch Alex Pereira's coach discuss the head kick KO below: