Fast facts
- Division: Heavyweight (former UFC middleweight champion, two-time UFC light heavyweight champion)
- Record: 13-4 (10-3 UFC)
- Nationality: Brazilian
- Team/gym: Teixeira MMA & Fitness
- Notable wins: Israel Adesanya (UFC 281), Jiří Procházka (UFC 295 and UFC 303), Jamahal Hill (UFC 300), Khalil Rountree Jr. (UFC 307), Magomed Ankalaev (UFC 320), Sean Strickland (UFC 276), Jan Błachowicz (UFC 291)
The UFC announced Alex Pereira vs. Sergei Pavlovich for UFC 335, and Pereira posted a promo video almost immediately. The caption, as shared by Championship Rounds on X, was three words long: “I’ll see you soon.” That is roughly as chatty as Poatan gets. Everything else he has to say, he says with his left hand.
The man answering the bell on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena is 39 years old, a former champion at 185 and 205, coming off the first real failure of his UFC title chase. He could have gone back to light heavyweight. Joe Rogan said on the UFC 332 broadcast that “the man won’t go back to light heavyweight.” So here we are.
Batistini to the tire shop
Pereira grew up in Batistini, a favela on the edge of São Bernardo do Campo. He left middle school to work alongside his father as a bricklayer’s assistant, then shined shoes and sold roses before landing steady work at a tire shop. His older brother Angelo got involved with drugs and was murdered at 17. Pereira himself started drinking at 12, by his own account, and the addiction got bad enough that it hurt his work at the shop.
In 2009, at 21, he walked into a kickboxing gym specifically to get sober. It took several failed attempts before he quit alcohol for good at the end of 2012. Somewhere in there, at Master Belocqua Wera’s academy, it became obvious he had a gift for hurting people in a controlled setting. His amateur boxing record is reported as 25-3, with every win by knockout, and there’s footage floating around of him knocking a guy clean out of the ring.
That backstory matters to the fighter he became. Pereira has two sons, indigenous Pataxó ancestry, and an institute, Instituto Poatan, that works with underserved kids in São Paulo. The UFC named him a 2026 Forrest Griffin Community Award recipient for it in April.
The Glory years, and the Adesanya problem
Before anyone in the UFC knew his name, Pereira was a monster in Glory. He won the Glory 14 middleweight contender tournament in 2014, knocking out Dustin Jacoby in Round 1 of the semis. He took the middleweight belt from Simon Marcus at Glory 46, defended it four times, and at Glory 55 in Madison Square Garden flattened Yousri Belgaroui with an overhand right at 2:29 of Round 1. Then he moved up, knocked out Donegi Abena for the interim light heavyweight title, and later beat Artem Vakhitov by split decision to become the first fighter in Glory history to hold two belts at once.
He also beat Israel Adesanya twice in kickboxing, once on the cards and once with a counter left hook that put Adesanya to sleep. Remember that hook. It comes back.
The MMA climb
His MMA debut in 2015 at Jungle Fight 82 ended with a submission loss to Quemuel Ottoni. A planned Contender Series Brazil bout in 2018 fell apart because Glory wouldn’t let him compete. He finally got real reps in 2020, signing with Legacy Fighting Alliance and knocking out Thomas Powell in Round 1, and the UFC signed him in September 2021.
The UFC run since has been absurd. He stopped Andreas Michailidis in Round 2 at UFC 268, outstruck Bruno Silva for three rounds, then dropped Sean Strickland in Round 1 at UFC 276. Four months later at UFC 281, trailing on the cards, he finished Adesanya in Round 5 for the middleweight title. Adesanya got him back at UFC 287 with a knockout late in Round 2.
Then came the weight conversation. Pereira has said he’d walk around about 215 pounds on fight night as a middleweight, and 225 to 235 at light heavyweight. Adesanya typically came in around 196. He moved up in April 2023 and edged Jan Błachowicz by split decision (22 of 26 media outlets had Pereira), then stopped Jiří Procházka in Round 2 at UFC 295 for the vacant light heavyweight belt.
The 175-day tear
2024 was a career’s worth of highlights in six months. He knocked out Jamahal Hill with a left hook in Round 1 at UFC 300. He took the Procházka rematch at UFC 303 on two weeks’ notice, after Conor McGregor got hurt, dropped him with a hook at the horn of Round 1, then ended it early in Round 2 with a head kick and punches. His coach later said the UFC paid him a $303,000 bonus for that one. At UFC 307 he stopped Khalil Rountree Jr. in Round 4 and set the UFC record for fastest three title defenses at 175 days, beating Ronda Rousey’s 189.
Magomed Ankalaev took the belt by unanimous decision at UFC 313 in a fight the media split on (11 of 21 outlets scored it for Ankalaev). Pereira took it back at UFC 320 with punches and elbows in Round 1. He vacated in February 2026 to chase a third division.
The White House, and Herb Dean
At UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, on the South Lawn, Pereira fought Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title and lost by TKO in Round 2. Afterward he went hard at referee Herb Dean, arguing that Gane landed repeated elbows to the back of his head during the finishing sequence and Dean let it go. My take: Dean was right to stop it once Pereira stopped defending, but if those elbows were landing behind the ear, the time to step in was before the finish, and that’s a rules failure worth reviewing.
The style that took him this far is simple and terrifying. He stalks behind a composed guard, chops the legs with low kicks, and throws almost nothing that isn’t meant to end the night. The left hook is the main event, usually as a counter when someone overreaches. Coaches Plinio Cruz and Glover Teixeira have steadily patched his takedown defense and clinch work.
Pavlovich, and the odds
BetOnline opened Pavlovich at -130 and Pereira at +111, according to MMA Fighting, and public money has since pushed Pavlovich to -164. Rogan framed the Russian as “a huge, huge heavyweight with gigantic power and fantastic boxing.” He also passed along what Pereira wants: “He’s like, ‘I want another shot at Ciryl Gane.’”
That road runs through Pavlovich over five rounds in the co-main under Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes. Pereira sits No. 6 in Knockout Daily’s heavyweight rankings and was No. 10 pound for pound in the UFC’s list as of Sept. 22. He’s been the underdog before, against Adesanya, against Procházka, against a dozen guys in Glory. On Dec. 12 in Las Vegas, he gets to find out whether a left hook built for 185 still works on a man that size.
