Even after a tough championship loss to start 2025, Alex Pereira

is still considered one of the faces of the UFC

. His career path is as unique as any, coming into the UFC at 34 years old and fighting 11 times against the best in the world in just over 3 years. He deserves all the praise in the world, so let’s go through his best performances in the UFC so far.

10

UFC 313: Pereira Vs. Ankalaev

Loss By Unanimous Decision

• In his 7th UFC title fight, Pereira suffered his first defeat in the light heavyweight division.
• The wrestling and pressure fighting from Ankalaev was just too much.
• The judges gave the challenger the nod on the scorecards.

This is a strange addition to the “best performances” list because it is a loss, but Pereira has only had 11 total UFC fights, and he also fought pretty well against a brand-new challenge. Many experts and fight fans around the world expected Pereira to have a very hard time with Ankalaev’s wrestling. It turns out that Pereira did very well with his wrestling defense.

Even though he lost on the scorecards, Pereira stuffed all 12 of Ankalaev’s takedown attempts and was the more efficient striker out of the two over the 5 rounds. This proves that he can compete with the wrestlers of the division, and even beat Ankalaev in their rematch. The fans still love him and want to see his exciting fight style much more than the current champion.

9

UFC Fight Night: Pereira Vs. Silva

Won By Unanimous Decision

• In his second UFC fight, Pereira was tested by a durable, dangerous veteran middleweight who can grapple and brawl in the cage.
• Pereira passed and dominated, winning by unanimous decision over Bruno Silva.

Pereira’s next step up in his fast-track to a title fight was against Bruno Silva in 2022, interestingly enough, on the undercard of a Fight Night event headlined by Ankalaev.

Silva was a perfect step-up to see if Pereira had what it took to take on a ranked contender in his next fight. Even though Silva took Pereira’s shots and tested the then-future champion, Pereira landed double the significant strikes and hurt Silva multiple times, en route to a unanimous decision win.

8

UFC 268: Pereira Vs. Michailidas

Won By Second Round KO

• In Pereira’s UFC debut, the pretty unknown world champion kickboxer turned heads with a highlight reel flying knee KO in the second round.
• This fight took place on the prelims of a massive UFC 268 card at Madison Square Garden.

Sometimes, Dana White proves why he is the best MMA promoter ever. This is the perfect debut for a potential superstar and new blood for the dominant champ, Israel Adesanya. On one of the biggest cards of the year, in Madison Square Garden, Pereira made his debut and showed off his dangerous skills.

After a feeling-out process and possibly some nerves in the first round, Pereira found the shot he was looking for and landed a devastating jumping knee on Michailidis that knocked him out in the second round. A perfect start for his UFC highlight reel.

7

UFC 276: Pereira Vs. Strickland

Won By First Round KO

• In his third UFC fight, Pereira was matched with ranked contender, Sean Strickland.
• Strickland chose to stand and trade with the world champion kickboxer, resulting in a first-round KO.

It’s hard to write a better script than how Pereira’s UFC career went up to this point. In just his third fight, Pereira was fighting a brash, loud contender on the main card of an Israel Adesanya event.

Even though Strickland later became champion, this performance isn’t rated higher because of the questionable game plan he had going against the world champion kickboxer. Even though Strickland possesses solid wrestling and grappling skills, he wants to beat Pereira with his striking. This resulted in a quick left hook that put Strickland out quickly. This was where the real hype behind Pereira was born.

6

UFC 295: Pereira Vs. Prochazka 1

Won By Second Round TKO

• In his first light heavyweight title fight, Pereira got the former champion, Jiri Prochazka, out of there in the second round.
• He became one of the few fighters to win UFC championships in two weight classes.

Even though this was a historic fight for Pereira and his legacy, it was kind of an awkward performance for the future two-division champion. Prochazka has an awkward style and is very dangerous in any position, but Pereira proved to be able to compete at the highest level even when moving up a weight class.

The only issue is that the stoppage was disputed by UFC fans and the media, which prompted a rematch and some clarity between these two elite fighters.

5

UFC 307: Pereira Vs. Rountree

Won By Fourth Round TKO

• In his third title fight in about six months, Pereira went to war with the very talented and tough Khailil Rountree.
• They put on a show for the fans and Pereira proved to be too much after dismantling and finishing Rountree in the fourth round.

This was a great performance for a few reasons.

Even though many casual fans overlooked Rountree
and his ability to win this fight, the experienced fans knew how dangerous this fight was for Pereira. On top of that, this was Pereira’s third title defense in 6 months, capping a year when he saved multiple events for the UFC.

Rountree proved to be unbelievably tough and skilled, but Pereira showcased how good he really was when he had the chance to fight for more than a couple of rounds. It was clear that Pereira got into some kind of “flow state” in the octagon that night and was very comfortable in the pocket. He broke Rountree down from his head to his leg, finishing the fight with nasty body shots in the fourth round.

4

UFC 291: Pereira Vs. Blachowicz

Won By Split Decision

• In his light heavyweight debut, Pereira bounced back from a devastating loss.
• He fought through adversity to earn himself a title shot.
• He beat the former champion, Jan Blachowicz, by split decision.

This one is ranked pretty high on the list because of the way Pereira overcame adversity and proved he was a legit contender at light heavyweight when many people weren’t sure how he would handle a championship-level fighter like Blachowicz.

Even though it wasn’t a pretty victory, Pereira out-struck Blachowicz and clearly did more damage while also having to deal with constant wrestling from the former light heavyweight champion. This was a very close fight, but Pereira showed that he could find a way to win a fight where his opponent went the “boring” route and tried to control him on the ground for 15 minutes.

3

UFC 300: Pereira Vs. Hill

Won By First Round KO

• At the historic UFC 300 event, Pereira headlined and delivered for the fans with a highlight reel KO over the former champion, Jamahal Hill.

Not only did Pereira save the event by taking this main event bout on relatively short notice, but he played perfectly into his superstardom and defeated the “heel” of the light heavyweight division at the time. This was when Pereira became a superstar.

After all the trash talk from Hill leading up to this fight, Pereira scored a viral KO in the first round to prove why he was the best in the world at that moment. He famously called off the ref after Hill committed a foul by landing a shot below the belt, then seconds later he landed a devastating left hand, ending with a meme-worthy pose above Hill’s unconscious body.

On literally the biggest stage in the UFC
, Pereira delivered.

2

UFC 281: Pereira Vs. Adesanya

Won By Fifth Round TKO

• In his first UFC title fight, Pereira defeated his career-long rival, Israel Adesanya, by fifth-round TKO and became the middleweight champion.
• This was a shock to many UFC fans as Adesanya was one of the most dominant champions the company has ever had.

It was difficult not to put at #1 on this list. The storyline of Pereira beating Adesanya twice in kickboxing, and then following him to MMA to take his throne in the UFC, to make a great comeback at the end of the fight where he needed a finish to win. This was a magical night for Pereira and his fans, and the Adesanya haters.

After losing three out of the first four rounds, Pereira hurt Adesanya to the legs and wore him down while landing heavy shots up against the fence. The stoppage was fair, even though many fans wanted to see a world champion go out on his shield. It was an incredible, gutsy performance from Pereira that showed everyone how special he was as a mixed martial artist.

1

UFC 303: Pereira Vs. Prochazka

Won By Second Round KO

• In his second fight in two months, Pereira dominated and knocked out former champion Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303 via second-round head kick KO.

Just two months following his massive win at UFC 300, Pereira saved a UFC 303 card that was devastated by injuries and fighters pulling out of bouts. Since their first meeting was competitive and had an awkward stoppage by the ref, many fans were very intrigued by how this one would play out.

Pereira gave his most technical and dominant performance to date. He was untouchable while hurting Prochazka multiple times before ultimately knocking him out at the start of the second round. Pereira must have known in the corner after the first round that the head kick was going to be there after landing heavy shots to the body and legs already. After a perfectly thrown head kick landed, Prochazka dropped and was finished in seconds.

This performance showed how dominant and dangerous Pereira was to anybody in the world, as well as making him a lot wealthier and an even bigger star.