Alice Pereira’s UFC debut ends in split decision at Noche UFC 3

Under the lights at Noche UFC 3

The lights were bright, the crowd was loud, and one of the UFC’s youngest newcomers got a crash course in big-league fighting. Alice Pereira, a 19-year-old Brazilian prospect dubbed the Golden Girl, made her first walk to the octagon at Noche UFC 3 and left with a split-decision loss to Mexico’s Montserrat Rendon. It wasn’t a blowout. It was close, tense, and at times cagey—exactly the kind of debut that exposes both promise and gaps.

Noche UFC has become a high-energy stage built around Mexican Independence Day weekend. That comes with a charged atmosphere and a lot of eyes on anyone sharing the card. Pereira was one of the night’s talking points even before the opening bell. Teenage debuts are rare in this sport; the UFC can count its teen prospects on one hand. The hype wasn’t made up out of thin air. Pereira has real skill and composure for her age. But in the UFC, pacing and initiative matter, and that’s where the fight tilted.

From the start, Rendon took ground and kept it. She pressed forward, made Pereira circle, and turned neutral space into her space. It wasn’t wild pressure—it was measured. That kind of steady march eats into a counterstriker’s rhythm, especially someone still learning how to build offense on the move. Pereira had moments, but they were too few and too spaced out to change the story the judges were watching develop: one fighter leading the dance, the other reacting.

The numbers on the scorecards told the tale: split decision for Rendon. In a split, at least one judge saw enough clean work from Pereira to reward it, which tracks with how pockets of the fight looked. When she did let her hands go, she found cleaner, straighter shots. The problem was volume. Rendon’s output, forward steps, and clinch pressure created long spells where Pereira was defending or resetting instead of scoring.

Judging in MMA comes down to effective striking and grappling first, then aggression and octagon control. Rendon locked down the last two categories all night. Pereira needed more of the first. That gulf—small but decisive—made the difference. There was no single momentum swing, no obvious 10-8, nothing that screamed robbery. Just a veteran approach edging out a newcomer still finding the pace of a UFC fight.

Credit to Rendon: she looked comfortable in a fight that demanded patience. She didn’t overextend chasing a finish. She made the cage smaller with her footwork, got to her spots, and made Pereira carry the psychological burden of being hunted. That kind of quiet pressure doesn’t make highlight reels, but it wins a lot of rounds. For Rendon, this is the kind of win that keeps you moving forward in a division that rewards consistency as much as firepower.

For Pereira, the debut jitters were real, and they showed up in the worst place—her output. Debuts do that to people. Even seasoned prospects tighten up under new lights and different stakes. The good news? At 19, time is on her side. Fighters far older have needed two, three, even five UFC outings before they looked like themselves. Look at the arc of champions who took early losses while they figured out pacing, game planning, and how to keep their best weapons live under stress. This sport lets you grow, if you take the lessons seriously.

What stood out, even in defeat, was Pereira’s composure. She didn’t panic when chased, didn’t get reckless, and held her shape defensively. That’s not nothing. Many fighters overcorrect in their first big moment—either freeze or try to force something that isn’t there. Pereira did neither. The next step is turning that composure into production: assert the jab, claim center more often, and make the opponent feel her presence earlier in rounds.

What the result means and what comes next

A split decision in your first UFC appearance is not a disaster; it’s a blueprint for the rebuild. There were no glaring holes, just a couple of themes that kept repeating. Her team will lean into those themes during the next camp and turn them into action items. Expect the focus to be on doing more, earlier, and with a plan that forces the opponent to respect the counters.

Here are the clearest adjustments that make sense based on what we saw:

• Raise the baseline output: A busier jab sets the table. It buys space, breaks rhythm, and nudges the opponent off that forward march.
• Own the edges of the cage: Don’t drift. Cut angles, pivot off the fence, and reset in the center instead of conceding long stretches backward.
• Clinch management: If you’re getting walked down, meet first contact with frames, quick pummeling, and exits. Make the clinch a neutral or scoring position, not a pause for the other fighter’s pressure.
• Feints and counters: Show threats before you throw. Feints draw out the pressure fighter’s entries and create windows for clean counters.
• Mix in level changes: Even if you’re not a takedown artist, changing levels stunts pressure and keeps the opponent honest.

There’s also the mental side. Debut nights are noisy: new locker room flow, new officials, new camera angles, a different tempo once you’re in there. Many fighters say the second UFC fight feels like a different sport because the nerves settle and the reads come quicker. That’s likely where Pereira will see the biggest jump—a clear plan, fewer pauses, and a steadier rhythm from the first minute.

Matchmaking-wise, the path is straightforward. Give Pereira another unranked opponent with a style that forces engagement but doesn’t drown her in clinch pressure. A return in a few months would be ideal. Not rushed, not stalled. Enough time to build the output tools, then get back to live fire before the rust sets in. She doesn’t need a top-15 test. She needs reps.

For Rendon, this result fits the picture she’s been building: durable, composed, and comfortable being the fighter who defines where and how the bout happens. It’s not flashy, but it’s bankable. Wins like this are why her name keeps showing up as a tough out for anyone climbing the ladder. The next step for her is adding a little more bite to the ends of those exchanges—turning pressure into damage that separates rounds more clearly on the cards.

The bigger story here is the UFC continuing to bet on youth. When the promotion signs someone at 19, it’s not for a one-and-done. It’s about a three- to five-fight arc where the development is visible in real time. Fans will now watch Pereira grow under that spotlight. The promise is there. You can see it in how she carries herself, how she doesn’t fall apart under heat. The missing piece is urgency.

Urgency is teachable. It’s a habit built in training—sparring in rounds where the goal is to hit a certain strike count, drilling exits off the fence until they’re automatic, and hard-coding the first 30 seconds of each round so the tone is set by her, not the other corner. That’s the difference between surviving five minutes and owning five minutes.

Noche UFC 3 gave Pereira a lesson many fighters don’t get until later: close fights don’t always fall your way, and the smallest details swing scorecards. A little more activity, a little more command of space, and this debut reads very differently. The potential didn’t go anywhere. It just met reality. Now comes the good part—the adjustment, the response, and the second walk that tells us what she learned.