Alex Pereira: a striker's grappling, built on defence
A kickboxer who entered MMA with an elite striking base and little grappling experience and became a champion in two UFC divisions: how Alex Pereira learned to survive on the ground, what the Ankalaev fights showed, and what that means for strikers who start jiu-jitsu.
Alex Pereira was born on 7 July 1987 in São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. Before MMA he was one of the best kickboxers in the world: GLORY champion at middleweight and light heavyweight, and the only man to beat Israel Adesanya twice in kickboxing. In the UFC he became middleweight champion and then light heavyweight champion twice. His MMA record is 13 wins and 4 losses, with 11 of the wins by knockout and none by submission.
So why is he on a grappling site? Because Pereira is a useful current example of the grappling a striker needs to make his striking work in MMA.
Where his grappling comes from
Almost nowhere, at first. He lost his MMA debut in 2015 to a rear naked choke. When he committed to MMA, he joined Glover Teixeira’s team in Connecticut, where his jiu-jitsu coach is Plinio Cruz. Cruz promoted him to brown belt after his first UFC title win in 2022 and to black belt in April 2024. Some in the jiu-jitsu world questioned that promotion, since he has never submitted anyone in MMA. But his coaches promote him for what he does in training, and in fights his jiu-jitsu has one job: to keep him safe and get him back up.
How his grappling has been tested
- Adesanya, 2022. In their title fight, Adesanya took him down in the third round and controlled him for the rest of it. Pereira survived, got through the round and won the title by TKO in the fifth.
- Procházka, 2023. Jiří Procházka took him down early. Pereira defended, stood up again, and won by TKO in the second round. The finish came after Procházka shot for another takedown.
- Ankalaev, March 2025. This is the fight to study. Magomed Ankalaev tried more than ten takedowns and landed none, but he spent almost six minutes pressing Pereira against the fence in the clinch. Ankalaev won the decision and the title with forward pressure, activity and his work on the feet.
- Ankalaev, October 2025. In the rematch, Pereira stopped an early takedown attempt and then stopped Ankalaev in 80 seconds to win the title back.
As of October 2026, the UFC record book puts his takedown defence at 83.3%. He almost never tries takedowns of his own.
Heavyweight
Pereira vacated the light heavyweight title in 2026 to move up to heavyweight. In June 2026, at the UFC event at the White House, Ciryl Gane stopped him in the second round for the interim heavyweight title. Next, he fights Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335 in Las Vegas on 12 December.
What someone who trains three times a week can take from it
- If you come from striking, start with defence. Pereira didn’t need to become a submission specialist. His MMA game first needed reliable defence underneath, a way to a safe position and a way back to his feet. For a striker starting jiu-jitsu, escapes and getting up are the first priority.
- A takedown you stop isn’t the end of the exchange. Against Ankalaev he stopped every takedown and still lost the fight. Stopping takedowns doesn’t win exchanges on its own: you also need to deal with the pressure that comes with them.
- A belt reflects what you show in the gym. Standards differ between academies. What matters is what you can do on the mat with a training partner who wants to beat you.