All in the family.
Alex Pereira will attempt to capture the UFC middleweight title when he collides with reigning 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya in the UFC 281 pay-per-view (PPV) main event this Sat. night (Nov. 12, 2022) at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with the Brazilian’s sister and fellow GLORY kickboxing veteran, Aline Pereira, nestled comfortably in the front row cheering him on.
“I’ve been following my brother’s footsteps since the beginning,” Aline recently told MMA Fighting. “I [sign with] every promotion he fights, I go after him everywhere he goes, so [the transition to MMA] happened naturally. I already knew that I would also follow him if he went to MMA. Right now I’m focused only on MMA because you can’t focus on doing both, fighting kickboxing and then MMA. You have to focus on only one of them to get to your goal.”
Aline, 32, will make her professional mixed martial arts (MMA) debut against former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 30 hopeful Helen Peralta in a flyweight fracas as part of the LFA 147: “Melo vs. Costa” event on Fri., Nov. 18, 2022 at WinnaVegas Casino Resort in Sloan, Iowa. Expect older brother Alex to be by her side from start to finish.
“I watched one or two of her fights, but I don’t watch [tape] too much,” Aline said. “I pay more attention to the way they fight, if they are too desperate. She hugs a lot, but I haven’t seen her take anyone to the ground. She’s more of a striker, but I think she’s coming in to grapple.”
I don’t blame her after watching Pereira obliterate Crystal Lawson at GLORY 71.