Viviane Pereira reveals she had bout with pinkeye weeks before UFC 212 win vs. Jamie Moyle

RIO DA JANEIRO – After a short-notice UFC debut, Viviane Pereira got to build a full camp for her second UFC outing. Still, there were some bumps along the way.

Pereira first entered the octagon at last December’s UFC 206, when she upset former title challenger Valerie Letourneau to earn a split-decision win. She had only 20 days to prepare.

For Saturday’s UFC 212, Pereira (13-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) actually got to build a full camp around Jamie Moyle (4-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC). And this time the victory on the scorecards looked a lot more dominant.

But while she was glad for the extra time to prepare, Pereira told reporters that her preparation still wasn’t optimal.

“I unfortunately caught conjunctivitis in the sparring week,” Pereira said after the preliminary-card strawweight bout, which streamed on UFC Fight Pass from Rio de Janeiro’s Jeunesse Arena. “No, I don’t have it anymore (laughs). But thankfully it all worked out.”

Pereira said the problem occurred “a few weeks” before the fight, and it went on for 15 to 17 days. While she wasn’t entirely out of the gym, she had to focus mostly on physical preparation avoiding contact. With even sweat making things worse, that meant skipping on the harder sparring sessions.

“Yes (I thought it could be a problem), because it was the main part,” Pereira said. “It was in full-on sparring with my training partners that I’d know whether I was good to go or not.”

In spite of the setbacks, Pereira guarantees she was absolutely confident walking into Saturday’s scrap. And though it was precisely that bit that ended up getting hurt in training, the Brazilian strawweight said the idea was still to keep the scrap standing.

That’s why she didn’t follow Moyle to the ground in pursuit of a finish after catching one of Moyle’s kicks at the end of the second round.

“I didn’t want to go the ground; I wanted the striking,” Pereira said. “But I managed to get her down and then I just scored some points to make sure I won the round, of course.”

Currently the No. 14 fighter in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s strawweight rankings, Pereira didn’t finish on Saturday. But she’s satisfied with what was ultimately her only goal.

“I don’t say what’s going to happen during a fight,” Pereira said. “Whether it was by knockout, submission or decision, even if it was just by a single point, I was going for the win.”

For more on UFC 212, check out the UFC Events section of the site.