Alex Pereira’s Former Promotion Crowns Champion

Alex Pereira’s former promotion, Jungle Fight, has crowned a new middleweight champion after Oton Jasse ended Joao Dantas’ title reign with a head kick at Jungle Fight 153 in Sao Paulo. Pereira is among the notable fighters who competed and won under the Brazilian banner before becoming a former two-division UFC champion, giving the promotion a recognizable place in his career story. The latest title change adds another decisive championship finish to a promotion that has featured Pereira as well as several other future or established MMA names.

The central development from Jungle Fight 153 was Jasse’s successful challenge for the 185-pound title. Dantas entered as the defending champion, but the bout did not reach the midpoint of the opening round. Jasse landed a kick to the back and side of Dantas’ head, sending the champion immediately to the canvas. The referee stepped in before follow-up shots were thrown, with Dantas described as defenseless on the ground. For readers following Pereira’s earlier competitive path, the result is a fresh example of the title-level action still taking place in a promotion where he previously won.

Alex Pereira’s Jungle Fight connection

Jungle Fight has been described as one of Brazil’s leading regional promotions and as a feeder organization of sorts for the UFC. Alex Pereira fought and won there, although he did not hold a title in the promotion. That distinction matters when placing the new middleweight result in context: Pereira’s link is to Jungle Fight’s history as a winning fighter, while the newly awarded championship belongs to Jasse after his victory over Dantas. Pereira is not presented as being involved in the Jungle Fight 153 main event, and the event does not alter the factual outline of his time with the promotion. Instead, the Sao Paulo card shows the continuing significance of a stage that has also hosted Jose Aldo. The source identifies Pereira and Aldo as standout names to have fought and won under the Jungle Fight banner, while noting that neither held its gold. Paulo Costa, Renato Moicano and Natalia Silva are among the recognizable fighters cited as Jungle Fight champions. That history gives Jasse’s win a clear frame without overstating it. The promotion’s past connection to Alex Pereira supplies career context, while the current news is the arrival of a new 185-pound champion through a rapid and conclusive finish.

Jasse won the title in his 34th professional MMA fight. The 32-year-old Brazilian entered the contest after a difficult stretch earlier in his career, having lost five times across a six-fight run before his current momentum. His win over Dantas was his second in a row and moved his MMA record to 23-11. The turnaround is supported by the sequence supplied: a poor six-fight stretch came before back-to-back victories, with the second of those victories delivering Jungle Fight gold. Dantas, 30, fell to 8-3 with the loss. Before winning the Jungle Fight title in his previous outing, he had been knocked out by Costello van Steenis in the PFL. The new result therefore closes Dantas’ reign immediately after Jasse’s first-round kick and establishes a changed champion at middleweight. In the wider setting of Alex Pereira’s former promotion, the card is notable for how quickly the championship picture shifted.

How the title changed hands

The fight’s key moment came early. Jasse challenged Dantas for the 185-pound championship in the Jungle Fight 153 main event, and the finish arrived before round one reached its midpoint. Jasse’s kick landed to the back and side of Dantas’ head, producing an immediate collapse. No additional strikes were needed after the referee intervened. A head-kick title finish is especially clear as a championship-ending moment because it leaves little doubt about the decisive sequence. The supplied account compares the broader appeal of such finishes to memorable title wins in MMA history, including Leon Edwards’ knockout of Kamaru Usman at UFC 278 in 2022. That comparison is context for the technique, not a comparison between Pereira and either fighter. Pereira’s relevance here remains his verified Jungle Fight history, while Jasse’s finish is the news event that created the promotion’s new champion. The result also separates two connected stories cleanly: Alex Pereira remains one of the promotion’s notable former winners, and Oton Jasse is now its current middleweight titleholder. Jungle Fight 153 delivered the second point through a single early strike that ended Dantas’ defense.

• Alex Pereira previously fought and won in Jungle Fight, but the source states that he did not hold a title in the promotion.
• Oton Jasse captured the Jungle Fight middleweight title by stopping defending champion Joao Dantas before the midpoint of the first round.

Alex Pereira’s connection to Jungle Fight remains an important piece of the promotion’s history, but its newest headline belongs to Jasse. The Brazilian veteran turned a second straight win into a championship when his first-round head kick stopped Dantas in Sao Paulo. The result provides both a new middleweight champion and a current chapter for the same regional promotion where Pereira previously built part of his record.

Sources: Bloody Elbow