Noche UFC's Alice Pereira always wanted to become youngest woman in UFC history |
11/09/2025 23:00 -
On Christmas Eve, 2024 — four days after she turned 19 —, Alice Pereira saw UFC CEO Dana White announce she had signed with the company. A rare announcement coming straight from the head of the UFC, especially for a 5-0 talent from Brazil, immediately put the "Golden Girl" on the radar of the MMA world.
And she embraces it all.
"That was very surreal," Pereira said of watching UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard FaceTime her to make the offer — while wearing a shirt with her name on it. "Still to this day, when I look back at it, we're still in shock with everything that happened, but with that feeling of joy that we were able to do what we had planned. Since my debut, every fight we did, every Instagram post I made, every mention, it was all for a reason. From the start, when I said what I wanted, we had a plan set."
Pereira, who always urged fans to tag Maynard on her social media posts after each MMA win, will become the youngest woman to compete for the UFC when she enters the octagon Saturday to battle Montserrat Rendon at Noche UFC in San Antonio, Texas.
"That was the intention. I had that ambition from the start, the dream of being the youngest girl [in the UFC]," Pereira said. "From the moment I realized the UFC wasn't such a distant dream, I started to get ambitious. I set out goals, and one the goals was to be the youngest girl in the UFC. The actual goal was to be there by 18. It happened four days later, but it's alright, it's great the way it happened [laughs]. It felt great that I had achieved this, that my prediction became true."
Pereira started training as a young kid in Brazil and went to the gym seven days a week without her mother's consent. Her mom wanted to see Pereira have a regular career, but she fought through for the ultimate dream. Pereira is now 6-0 as a professional with four knockouts and one submission to her credit, and feels relaxed with all the attention and pressure that a UFC debut brings.
"I take a shower before going to bed and I'm thinking, 'Man, I'm too calm. I don't know if that's good or bad,'" Pereira said. "The word of the moment is this: calm. When I think about the fight, I'm calm. When I think about situations that can happen in the fight, bad situations that can happen, I'm calm. I don't know if that's good, but I'm too relaxed for this fight. I'm so confident in the result, confident that I'll be able to put on a good fight to be proud of."
The octagon debut will come nine months after signing with the promotion, and Pereira feels Rendon is the perfect match-up to introduce her name and talent to the world. The 36-year-old Rendon is 1-1 with a pair of decisions in the UFC, defeating Tamires Vidal before losing to Darya Zheleznyakova in March 2024.
"Rendon walks forward and when you push her she tries to grapple, and we know [she will try that]," Pereira said. "We think that's what's going to happen because I like to impose my game on the feet, and I know it's going to be better than hers. It's not a good match-up for her, you know? But I'm ready to get out of the clinch or work on the clinch if I feel like it, too."
