HOLY _____! Pereira’s power is unreal!!!
#LFA95 pic.twitter.com/0EAoY6z4fA— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass)
November 21, 2020
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Former Glory kickboxing two-division champion Alexsandro
Pereira is fighting out of his contract on Saturday and already
has his sights set on the Ultimate Fighting Championship. On Saturday, the Glory light heavyweight champ Pereira (33-6 KB,
3-1 MMA) is planning on defending that belt against Artem Vakhitov,
the man he won it from in January. Once a two-division champ at
middleweight and light heavyweight, Pereira relinquished the former
in pursue of the latter’s throne. Win or lose, “Poatan” is expected
to sign with the UFC, as first reported by
BJPenn.com, and he already has an opponent and date booked for
his debut: Andreas
Michailidis (13-4) at middleweight on
UFC 268. News of the signing and the specific opponent has been
confirmed by multiple outlets.
The Brazilian made his return to MMA at LFA 95 in 2020, where he
faced Thomas
Powell and decimated him with one left hand. A far more
experienced kickboxer than MMA fighter, Pereira does find himself
on a three-fight knockout streak when competing under MMA rules.
His debut in 2015 did not go his way, when Quemuel
Ottoni tapped him out late into the bout. Pereira was once
targeted for a 2018 appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series, but the
kickboxing league prohibited him from competing. The kickboxer may
most famously be known as the only man to knock Israel
Adesanya out in any combat sport, doing so in 2017 at a Glory
of Heroes event.
Michailidis rebounded from his unsuccessful promotional debut – a
knockout loss to Modestas
Bukauskas in 2020 – by taking a unanimous verdict over K.B. Bhullar
in May. That decision put an end to a seven-fight knockout streak,
where the Greek fighter either prevailed by or suffered a knockout
in that span. “Spartan” celebrates a career finish rate of 85
percent, with all of his setbacks coming by way of knockout.
UFC 268 goes down inside of Madison Square Garden in New York on
Nov. 6 with a thriller of a card. In the main event, Kamaru
Usman gives Colby
Covington a rematch for the former’s welterweight throne. The
co-headliner sees Rose
Namajunas similarly put her belt on the line against a former
foe, when she defends against ex-champ Weili Zhang
at strawweight. Serving in the featured fight of the card is a
sure-fire lightweight banger between Justin
Gaethje and Michael
Chandler.
