Michel Pereira details hotel confrontation with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou: “Honestly, Ngannou made me angry”

Michel Pereira has detailed the hotel confrontation he had with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

It was Michel Pereira (28-11 MMA) vs Santiago Ponzinibbio (29-6 MMA) in the welterweight co-main UFC Vegas 55 event on Saturday May 21, 2022. Pereira came out the victor via split decision, taking his record to 5 wins in a row.

Following the victory, Pereira and associates celebrated at a hotel, where they happened upon Francis Ngannou and ‘Demolidor’ is sharing the incident.

In speaking with Canal Encarada (h/t talkSPORT), Michel Pereira talked about what happened following his win over Ponzinibbio:

“We celebrated my victory at the hotel, had fun. And we are such guys – we move only with music, we constantly light up, even when we cut weight. I always rock, and my guys are the same.”

“Constantly moving noisily, having parties. Guerra was drinking there non-stop, everyone was joking, bantering. And our room was next door to Ngannou. And since the room was small, and there were a lot of people, someone suggested, ‘Let’s sit in the hallway?’ And we sat down in the corridor, and immediately came out to us – who would you think? Ngannou. The guys look at each other like that, ‘Wow, Ngannou is coming.’

Confirming what Ngannou said to the partiers, Michel Pereira said:

“He comes up and says, ‘Hey, do you think it’s real to fall asleep when there’s such a noise? How do I sleep, huh?’ Honestly, at that moment I felt uncomfortable. It was after a hard fight, my nose was broken, my legs were beaten off.”

“If Ngannou started a fight, what would I do to him? The team is already all drunk, they wouldn’t have helped me in any way.”

Continuing Michel Pereira admitted that Ngannou made him angry saying:

“Honestly, Ngannou made me angry. Why couldn’t he address us politely? He was lucky that I was all beaten up and couldn’t do anything, especially for a guy of this size. I don’t even want to think about it. I know he’s a modest, nice guy, but why couldn’t he tell us politely, ‘Hey, guys, could you …’ I didn’t like the way he spoke to us. You need to be polite to people.”

“If he had addressed us politely, we would have retained respect for him forever. And so – we just fell silent. ‘What the f**k?! Do you think you can fall asleep with such noise?’ Bro, we were just drinking … You have to be polite to people. I could have answered him too, ‘Bro, go f**k. Who are you anyway?’”

Obviously Michel Pereira took issue with how Francis Ngannou spoke to him and his guests. However, taking a liquor infused party from a hotel room into the hallway of the hotel is sure to offend other guests in the building and Ngannou was right next door. Do you think Pereira should be angry with ‘The Predator‘?