Alex Pereira

Alex Sandro Silva Pereira, known by his nickname "Poatan" (Tupi for "Stone Hands"), is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who has competed for and won championships in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions of the UFC.

Pereira was born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, and took up kickboxing as a young man, turning professional and building one of the most decorated striking résumés in combat sports well before he ever stepped into mixed martial arts. That striking foundation, forged over years of high-level competition, would go on to define his UFC run.

His credentials are historically established and verifiable: Pereira became a two-division kickboxing champion with GLORY, holding both the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight titles, the first fighter in the promotion's history to do so. His kickboxing résumé includes two victories over future UFC champion Israel Adesanya, and he was later inducted into the GLORY Hall of Fame.

Pereira's fighting style centers on elite, kickboxing-derived striking: patient, deliberate pressure, punishing low kicks that wear down an opponent's legs, and a counter left hook that has produced some of the most memorable knockouts in the sport. Training alongside former UFC light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira and coach Plinio Cruz at Teixeira MMA and Fitness, he steadily developed his grappling to round out his game.

In the UFC, Pereira won the middleweight championship by knocking out Adesanya, then moved up to light heavyweight and captured that title as well, defeating Jiří Procházka for the vacant belt. His list of notable wins includes multiple former UFC champions, among them Jan Błachowicz and Jamahal Hill.

Pereira is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous strikers ever to compete in the UFC, a rare athlete to hold world championships in two weight classes across both kickboxing and mixed martial arts, and a defining figure of the sport's modern era of striker-driven champions.