UPDATED LFA Signs Glory 2-Division Champ and Israel Adesanya Rival Alex Pereira

LFA is excited to announce that we have signed top prospect #AlexPereira.

Pereira is the reigning #GLORY 85 kg champ and interim 95 kg champ.

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He is also the last man to defeat @StyleBender and holds a 2-0 record against the #UFC #middleweight champ in #kickboxing. pic.twitter.com/aqOz7x0uLS

— LFA (@LFAfighting) October 23, 2020

Editor's note: The article has been updated at 4:40 p.m. ET on Oct. 23 to add comments from Pereira and his manager.

Shortly after a fake Twitter account masqueraded and made waves as Glory kickboxing champ Alexsandro Pereira, the fighter has signed with the Legacy Fighting Alliance.

On Thursday night, the promotion announced it had signed highly touted kickboxer Pereira (2-1 MMA, 41-6 KB). The kickboxer had once signed to participate on Dana White's Contender Series in 2018, but a prospective matchup was scratched before it came together. Pereira does not yet have an opponent listed, or any date specified for his organizational debut. It is expected that “Poatan” will compete at the middleweight division that he lorded over in Glory.

Pereira spoke to Sherdog about the signing, saying, "I signed a contract to make two fights per year. But I'll keep fighting in Glory." Pereira's manager, Jorge Guimaraes, also spoke of Pereira's new deal. "He helped Anderson [Silva] and Glover [Teixeira] in their last camps and both got really impressed about how adapted to MMA 'Poatan' is," Guimaraes explained. "Once we [had] a great relationship with Glory, they allowed 'Poatan' to make two fights in LFA per year. He will fight in LFA defending the Glory flag."

Although “Poatan” posts just two wins in MMA, both came by knockout within the first two rounds. His debut in the sport coming in 2015, the kickboxer succumbed to a rear-naked choke in the third round against Quemuel Ottoni. As a kickboxer, Pereira is much more decorated, as he is currently the middleweight champion and the interim middleweight titleholder in Glory. With 41 wins under his belt including 30 by knockout, one of his most prominent came when he sparked Israel Adesanya with a vicious left hook at a Glory of Heroes event in 2017. That meeting was a rematch against Adesanya from the prior year, as Pereira captured a unanimous verdict over the current UFC middleweight champ in 2016. Pereira has won eight consecutive kickboxing matches, including a stretch of title victories with Glory where he knocked out five of seven foes.

The kickboxing organization where Pereira is the champ has encountered several financial woes, leading Glory to go on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. It does not appear that Pereira will be forced to vacate either belt, and the promotion has confirmed to Sherdog that he will be permitted to take kickboxing matches while under contract with the LFA.

Pereira made the news in September when he tested positive for COVID-19 while training with Glover Teixeira. As both he and Teixeira contracted the virus, the two training partners quarantined together and continued to train as they were both asymptomatic. Teixeira will finally be meeting Thiago Santos at UFC on ESPN 17 on Nov. 7 after COVID-19 pushed the matchup back a few months.