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Alex Pereira, only man to knock out Israel Adesanya, expected to sign with UFC after GLORY title defense

Alex Pereira is the GLORY middleweight and light heavyweight titleholder. | GLORY

One of the best strikers on the planet is close to joining the UFC roster.

Alex Pereira, the GLORY middleweight and light heavyweight king, has agreed to terms and is expected to sign a deal with the UFC following his upcoming rematch with Artem Vakhitov, which goes down Saturday in the Netherlands.

Sources confirmed the news to MMA Fighting following a report from De Telegraaf.

“Poatan” will enter the UFC middleweight division after racking up a stellar 33-6 record in kickboxing, a run that includes a pair of wins over UFC’s 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya. Pereira is the only man to ever finish Adesanya in any sport.

Pereira returned to MMA in 2020 after a four-year absence and destroyed Thomas Powell via first-round knockout at LFA this past November. Pereira, who is 3-1 in MMA, was previously close to joining the UFC, but his GLORY contract prevented him from facing Diego Henrique da Silva at Dana White’s Contender Series Brazil in 2018.

Watch Pereira’s most recent MMA victory below.

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