Alex Pereira is pushing back hard on his knockout loss to Ciryl Gane, arguing that illegal blows and poor officiating changed the outcome of their heavyweight bout.
Pereira was stopped in the second round after being stunned and dropped by a jab, but he claims Gane landed multiple illegal strikes to the back of his head during the finishing sequence and has criticized referee Herb Dean for not controlling the action. Dean has defended his officiating and most of Gane’s shots as legal.
“People say that I got tired. No, I did not,” Pereira said. “I opened my mouth in the corner to do my own breathing exercise to recover [after Round 1]. Everything was fine, and Ciryl, the way that he was gassing after the fight was over, if I had the chance to survive … the end of the second round, Ciryl does not survive the fight because he does not have heart. You could see in his eyes. I got robbed in that moment.”
“Ciryl was lying down [after the fight] because he was dead tired. That’s why he really had to hit me with those [potentially illegal] shots so he could handle that,” Pereira added.
The bout was part of Pereira’s bid to capture a third divisional title in the UFC, and the usually stoic champion has been unusually vocal since the defeat. He is seeking a rematch with Gane, while also being linked to a potential fight with Josh Hokit, who has been publicly calling for a matchup for about a month.
