Alice Pereira He made his professional MMA debut at the age of 18. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @alicepereiraufc
The UFC's youngest fighter will debut on September 13th. Alice Pereira, just 19 years old, will fight with Montserrat Rendon No. UFC Night 3. The event will be held at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas (USA). The Brazilian will be the youngest athlete to step into the Octagon in the organization's history.
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Pereira—a champion's surname—has a six-fight undefeated record. Four victories were by knockout. She was signed following a call from Mick Maynard a week after her last fight.
The debutant's opponent has six wins and one loss on her record. Montserrat Rendon fought two times for the UFC. The Mexican won Tamires Vidal in his debut and suffered the first setback of his career against Darya Zheleznyakova the last time he stepped into the octagon.
Alice Pereira's Plans
Alice Pereira was recently hired by the UFC. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @alicepereiraufc
In an exclusive interview given to SUPER FIGHTS in March, 'Golden Girl' (golden girl), as she is known, spoke about her arrival in MMA; revealed future plans and gave a preview of what fans can expect when it is her time to present herself in the UFC.
“When I debuted in MMA, I already knew that I wanted to pursue a career in it. My debut was more about getting that certainty. Then there was a series of conversations with my teachers, a lot of training and then I already had an idea that we were going to get there, we were already certain. I just didn’t imagine that it would happen so quickly and to the extent that it did.”
Like many fighters, Alice, who began her professional career in 2023, already has a nickname. Although she doesn't understand the reason, the fighter showed that she approved of her coach Edilson Teixeira's idea.
"It was pretty much out of the blue. I'd been looking for a nickname for myself for a while, and then one day Edilson woke up and said my nickname would be Golden Girl. Where did he get that from? I'll ask one day to get that answer for the people who ask."
Differentiated hiring
After fighting her sixth career, Alice took advantage of the moment of victory to ask for a chance at the UFC. Amidst the silence and suspense about whether the planning had worked, Micky Maynard, Dana White's right-hand man and one of those responsible for the organization's fight schedule, called the athlete directly to invite her to join the UFC.
Mick Maynard in connection with Alice Pereira. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @alicepereiraufc
“In fact, when we had planned all this phrase, the videos, the shirt we were going to post, we imagined that the contract could come. The goal, my hope was that the contract would come by the 20th (of December), which is my birthday on the 19th (…) The video reached Mick Maynard, we saw that he had seen it, he liked it and when the contract didn’t arrive that week, we had lost hope. (I thought): ‘yeah, it’s not going to come, next year we’ll have a fight and try again’. But it turned out that on the 24th, on Christmas Eve, I got a call from Mick, he had made a shirt wishing me a Merry Christmas and saying that I was in. Then we understood that it was a surprise”
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