Among his many world class kickboxing accolades are a pair of wins over current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
The news is finally official. World class Brazilian kickboxer and former multi-division GLORY champion Alex Pereira has signed with the UFC. ‘Po Atan’ first rose to fame in the MMA world following the 2018 signing of now-champion Israel Adesanya. Pereira faced Adesanya inside the ring twice over their long kickboxing careers, defeating the ‘Last Stylebender’ both times.
Their second bout, a KO win for Pereira, marked the final fight of Adesanya’s kickboxing career before turning to MMA full time. And following the Nigerian-born New Zealander’s signing to the UFC, talk of Pereira’s own potential move to MMA started to pick up stream.
Pereira (33-7 kickboxing record) will hit the Octagon with just a 3-1 tally competing with 4oz gloves. After taking three MMA bouts between 2015-16 he didn’t return to the sport until a 2020 fight with the LFA organization. Although he lost his MMA debut via submission, all Pereira’s other bouts have resulted in KO victories.
The Glover Teixeira trained fighter will make his UFC debut on November 6th at Madison Square Garden against Andreas Michailidis. He made the news official with a short video released to Instagram.
“Hello guys, now it’s official,” Pereira told fans after signing his UFC contract for the camera. “UFC, thank you! I am so happy to be part of the family.”
UFC 268 is set to be headlined by pair of title fight rematches, with Kamaru Usman taking on Colby Covington for the second time, in defense of his welterweight belt, and Rose Namajunas facing Weili Zhang once again after beating ‘Magnum’ back in April for her second stint as strawweight champ. A lightweight top contender’s bout between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler has also been planned for the event.