Aline Pereira went into the Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10 finale with her brother Alex in her corner. She came out with no UFC contract, a unanimous decision loss to Sweden’s Smilla Sundell, and a comment section that turned on her almost before the scorecards were read. EssentiallySports rounded up the fan reaction under a headline borrowing one viewer’s verdict: “One of the Worst Fights I’ve Ever Seen.”
That’s harsh, and I think it’s aimed at the wrong thing. The loss was clear. LowKickMMA’s headline said Sundell dominated, and nobody serious is disputing that. But a lot of the people dunking on Pereira are angry at a fight that went pretty much the way the paperwork said it would.
Read the paperwork
Pereira is 36. She’s a former kickboxer who turned pro in MMA in 2022, and this was her sixth professional fight. The loss leaves her at 3-3. Sundell is 21. Yahoo Sports reported that Pereira was overwhelmed by Sundell’s pressure and her volume of punches, which is about the least surprising sentence you could write about that matchup on paper. A fighter with a striking background and a thin MMA résumé ran into a younger opponent who simply threw more and kept walking forward. When one woman can’t find an answer to that, the fight looks one-sided and flat from the couch. That’s what one-sided fights look like.
Calling it one of the worst fights anyone has ever seen says more about what people expected to watch than about what happened in the cage.
The name on the back of the shorts
Here’s where expectations got warped. Alex Pereira, 39, is one of the most successful fighters the UFC has ever had, with titles at middleweight and light heavyweight. In June he tried to become the first fighter to win a belt in a third division and lost to heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane. Even in defeat, he’s the guy who made casual fans learn the word “Poatan.”
So a big chunk of the audience tuned in to see Alex’s sister and quietly expected Alex’s left hook. That was never a reasonable bar for someone with five MMA fights before Tuesday night. She had real momentum coming in, a win on the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano undercard on Netflix in May, and that win probably inflated things further. A strong showing on a huge stage plus a famous last name makes people forget the record says 3-2.
I’m generous to fighters taking their shot on DWCS. It’s the toughest job interview in the sport, one fight, one decision-maker, no second chances that night. Pereira took that shot at 36 with her brother in her corner, and she lost to someone better on the night. That deserves honesty about the performance. It doesn’t deserve the pile-on.
The detail that ends the debate
The most revealing part of the night came after the fight, and it wasn’t about Pereira at all. Yahoo Sports reported that White said he was unsure about giving Sundell a contract even after she won, because of her inexperience, and that his team had to convince him.
Think about that. The woman who won, decisively, by a unanimous decision that one outlet described as domination, needed her case argued for her in the room. If the winner had to be talked into a deal, the loser was never getting one, no matter whose sister she is. That’s how this show actually works. White is shopping for upside. A 21-year-old who drowns people in volume has upside. A 36-year-old at 3-3 has to be spectacular to get the same look, and Pereira wasn’t spectacular.
Sundell knew how close it came. “I was scared but I believe everything happens for a reason and I’m really happy it worked out,” she said afterward.
Where the criticism is fair
None of this means Pereira gets a pass. She had the biggest platform of her MMA career, coming off that Netflix win, and by every account she couldn’t solve the problem in front of her. A former kickboxer facing a pressure fighter should have some tools to make that pressure expensive. Based on how the fight was reported, she didn’t find them. If she keeps fighting, that’s the work: figuring out how to stop being the one absorbing the pace.
That’s a legitimate critique. “Worst fight ever” isn’t.
The people who spent the night roasting Pereira also mostly skipped past the actual story. A 21-year-old Swede just walked through a Pereira on the biggest night of the DWCS season, and the UFC president has already admitted he almost let her get away. When Sundell makes her UFC debut, that’s the fight worth getting loud about.
