Aline Pereira, aiming to secure a stable fighting career in the U.S. for her family’s comfort, balances training with delivery work while competing in Karate Combat, inspired by legends like her brother Alex Pereira and Glover Teixeira.
Aline Pereira dreams big. Her American dream? To build a fighting career strong enough to ensure her family lives comfortably in the U.S., without needing side gigs to make ends meet.
She’s the younger sister of UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira. This Friday, Aline’s stepping back into the Karate Combat pit in Miami, facing Amanda Torres, a last-minute replacement. Being around legends like her brother “Poatan” and ex-UFC champ Glover Teixeira fuels her passion. She dreams of living solely for the sport.
Much like her brother, Aline started in kickboxing before transitioning to MMA between 2022 and 2023, achieving a 1-2 record under LFA. Now with Karate Combat, she made a stunning debut last October, knocking out Dee Begley in highlight-reel fashion.
But even with Karate Combat’s better pay compared to kickboxing and MMA, Aline still hustles for extra cash between fights. “I do deliveries for Amazon,” she told MMA Fighting. Balancing training and work is tough, but it all works out somehow.
When not prepping for a fight, Aline’s day starts early—2:30 a.m. She drives ten minutes to an Amazon warehouse to pick up boxes for delivery. Waking up that early helps her dodge traffic and frees up time to train later.
“It’s not easy,” she admits. Deliveries take about four and a half hours. Still, she loves being in the U.S., which has been good for both her and her son.
Aline aims for another victory on Friday, hoping it opens doors to bigger opportunities in combat sports. She’s honing her wrestling and jiu-jitsu at Glover Teixeira’s gym, eyeing a potential MMA return, but Karate Combat remains her current focus.
“I’m really excited,” Aline says about her upcoming fight. “[Karate Combat] is quite different, isn’t it?” Her last performance was well-prepared; this one won’t be any different. The promotion values its athletes greatly. “We train for [a knockout],” she adds. Both she and her brother are technical fighters aiming for knockouts, though she can’t promise one every time. Funny enough, she predicted a knockout last time because of some trash talk from her opponent!