Alex Pereira

Some Lesser Known Facts About Alex Pereira

• Alex Pereira grew up in a favela in Brazil. After he stopped going to middle school, he began working as an assistant to a bricklayer. Later, he worked in a tyre shop.

• During this time, he started drinking due to his colleagues’ influence and became an alcoholic.

• In 2009, Alex Pereira started practising kickboxing to overcome his addiction.

  

• On 8 March 2014, he won the Glory 14: Zagreb Middleweight Contender Tournament in Croatia. He defeated his opponent Dustin Jacoby by first-round knockout in the semi-finals and Sahak Parparyan by majority decision in the final.

• Alex Pereira then competed in the Glory 17: Los Angeles Middleweight Tournament on 21 June 2014 and lost to Artem Levin by unanimous decision in the quarter-finals.

• He fought at the ‘WGP Kickboxing 25’ and won the WGP Middleweight title by defeating his opponent César Almeida by decision.

• Alex Pereira fought for the WGP KB title in the second round of the ‘WGP KB 40’ and defeated Maycon Silva.

• In his next five fights, he lost four matches to Artur Kyshenko.

  

• During this period, he achieved many victories over Israel Adesanya, winning once by unanimous decision and once by knockout.

• Alex Pereira won the Glory Middleweight title with a unanimous decision against Simon Marcus at Glory 46: China.

• He fought against Yousri Belgaroui at the Glory 40 and Glory 49 Superfight Series.

• In 2018, Alex Pereira and Yousri Belgaroui fought again at Glory 55 in New York’s Madison Square Garden for the Middleweight Title Match. Pereira won with an overhand right knockout at 2:29 of Round 1. This victory marked Pereira’s 28th career win and sixth win inside the Glory ring.

• In November 2018, he announced through social media that he would pursue an MMA career after his Glory contract expired in April 2019.

• Alex Pereira then re-signed from Glory and started fighting in MMA.

• He defended his Glory middleweight title four times, defeating Yousri Belgaroui, Simon Marcus, and Jason Wilnis.

• Alex Pereira then fought with Donegi Abena for the interim Glory Light Heavyweight Championship at Glory 68. Pereira won by knockout in the third round and became Glory’s first double champion.

  

• He challenged Artem Vakhitov for the Glory Light Heavyweight title at Glory 77. He won the fight by split decision, becoming the first fighter in Glory history to hold two belts simultaneously.

• Later, his Middleweight title was taken away from him.

• In his first title defence at Glory 78: Rotterdam, he fought again with Artem Vakhitov. Alex Pereira lost the rematch by majority decision after being deducted one point in round 4 for repeated clinching. Many accepted this decision as controversial.

• He made his professional MMA debut in 2015 at Jungle Fight 82 and lost to Quemuel Ottoni by submission.

• Alex Pereira continued at Jungle Fight, winning his next two fights by KO and TKO against Marcelo Cruz and Marcus Vinicius Silveira.

• He announced a fight against Diego Henrique da Silva in the Brazilian edition of Dana White’s Contender Series on 10 August 2018, but Glory did not permit him to compete.

• After this, he played for his middleweight title against Ertugrul Bayrak at Glory Collision 2 on 21 December 2019. He dominated the first round and won by knockout at the end of the round.

• On 22 October 2020, Alex Pereira signed with Legacy Fighting Alliance and debuted against Thomas Powell on 20 November 2020. He won the match by knockout in the first round.

  

• On 3 September 2021, he signed with the UFC.

• Alex Pereira made his debut against Andreas Michailidis on 6 November 2021 at UFC 268 and won the match by technical knockout in round two. He then won a Performance of the Night award.

• He then fought with Bruno Silva on 12 March 2022 at UFC Fight Night 203 and won the match by unanimous decision after outstriking Silva for all three rounds.

• Alex Pereira faced Sean Strickland at UFC 276 on 2 July 2022. Pereira won the fight by defeating Strickland in the first round. He earned another Performance of the Night award and a Crypto.com Fan Bonus of the Night, which paid $10,000 in Bitcoin.