Alex Pereira

Alex Pereira's UFC run is one of the most improbable stories in the sport. He arrived in 2021 as a decorated kickboxer with three MMA fights; within five years he'd won titles in two divisions and become the promotion's most reliable deliverer of violence. 'Poatan' — 'stone hands' — is not a nickname, it's a diagnosis: 11 of his 13 wins are knockouts.

The Brazilian is the only man to hold two-division titles in both GLORY kickboxing and the UFC, and he owns a piece of history nobody can take: multiple knockout wins over Israel Adesanya, spanning kickboxing and MMA. The left hook that does the damage is arguably the single most feared strike in the sport.

There is no padding on his record. Pereira has spent his entire UFC career fighting killers — Adesanya, Jan Błachowicz, Jiří Procházka, Jamahal Hill, Khalil Rountree, Magomed Ankalaev — often on short notice, and he saved multiple pay-per-views by stepping up when other fighters wouldn't.

At 39 and currently ranked #3 at light heavyweight, the story isn't finished. Nobody sells a comeback like Poatan — and nobody's hook ages slower.