{"id":634158,"date":"2026-04-27T13:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634158\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:44:15","slug":"alex-pereira-coach-plinio-cruz-announces-return-to-fighting-daddys-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634158\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Pereira coach Plinio Cruz announces return to fighting: \u2018Daddy\u2019s back!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

You probably know Plinio Cruz as two-division champion Alex Pereira\u2019s coach,<\/a> translator, and best friend. But before being attached at the hip to \u201cPoatan,\u201d Cruz was also an MMA fighter \u2026 and could return to fight again by the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Daddy\u201d Cruz fought from 2008 to 2019, earning an 8-9 record with stints in Bellator, M-1 Global, and Cage Fury. Just like Pereira, he started his career at middleweight and made his way up to heavyweight over the years, even competing a few times at super heavyweight. Now he\u2019s considering coming back to competition at the ripe age of 40.<\/p>\n

\u201cI turned 40 and I started to lose weight here, chilling,\u201d Cruz said in a video from Alex Pereira\u2019s YouTube channel. \u201cI started training and \u2018Poatan\u2019 started talking to me about fighting again. So I said the offer has to be good for me to put my cigar on the table and sign the contract. Then there came a good offer that we\u2019re negotiating with Misfits. So most likely I\u2019ll be fighting for the Misfits belt at the end of the American summer, which would be between August and September.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ll get \u2018Poatan\u2019 ready, I will help make him a champion, then it\u2019s dad\u2019s turn, right? Stay tuned, Daddy\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Pereira is set to fight Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title at the UFC\u2019s big White House card<\/a> on June 14th in what could be a historic night for the Brazilians. No fighter has ever held UFC belts in three different divisions. Even if it\u2019s an interim, it is still a massive accomplishment for Pereira and Cruz.<\/p>\n

A Misfits belt is less prestigious, but whatever makes Cruz more money is cool by us. Misfits currently lists just one MMA fighter on their webpage: Dillon Danis, who is the Misfits MMA champion. Danis previously agreed<\/a> to fight the 400 pound Eddie Hall, so perhaps Cruz could step in? Or perhaps there\u2019ll be a new heavyweight MMA division, or we could see Cruz try his hand at boxing? The Misfits heavyweight boxing belt is currently held by \u201cMr. Belt To Ass\u201d Chase DeMoor.<\/p>\n

With Alex Pereira at UFC White House, his little sister Aline Pereira<\/a> on MVP MMA 1, and now Plinio Cruz to Misfits, Team Pereira really is taking over combat sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You probably know Plinio Cruz as two-division champion Alex Pereira\u2019s coach, translator, and best friend. But before being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-634158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}