Alex Pereira will not return to light heavyweight after coming up short in his attempt to win the interim heavyweight title at the UFC White House card on June 14, and he’s angling for a rematch with Ciryl Gane.
“Poatan” was asked by Joe Rogan immediately after the fight whether or not he would stay at heavyweight or go back to 205 pounds, a division where he has reined as champion, but he didn’t give an answer. That changed on Wednesday, when he told fellow UFC fighter Renato Moicano that a decision has been made.
“100 percent [staying at] heavyweight,” Pereira said. “Honestly, training went really well. A lot of people talk about the weight, but I’ve always been a heavy guy. Some people say I ‘Poatan wasn’t prepared, he can’t take a punch, he got dropped by a jab.’ How can people be so stupid and only see the jab? Nobody says, ‘Damn, he took a beating [and stayed in the fight].’ Ciryl Gane was already a heavyweight, already used to that weight. [Say] ‘After that jab landed, the guy took so many shots — punches to the back of the head, illegal strikes — and managed to get back up and keep trading with the guy.’ Nobody sees that. They only talk about the jab. But what about all the punches I took?”
Pereira weighed in at 251 pounds the morning before the White House bout, a whopping 46.5-pound gain compared to eight months prior, when he scored a first-round knockout over Magomed Ankalaev to reclaim the light heavyweight belt. “Poatan” was three pounds heavier than Gane on Saturday, but said he didn’t feel tired after the opening round.
“I wasn’t tired,” Pereira said. “I got back to the corner and listened clearly to Glover [Teixeira] and Plinio [Cruz]. I didn’t even sit on the stool. I was relaxed. I was feeling good. You know why? Because my strategy wasn’t to expend a lot of energy or throw a lot of strikes. It was to use the first round to make my reads and then start picking up the pace. But unfortunately, I got hit. Usually when I get hit, I pull my head back, but I need to have my feet planted on the ground to do that. When you’re stepping, you can’t do it. I tried to step in a little more so I could land the heavier shots, but there wasn’t enough time. The guy landed the jab and then took advantage of the situation [to land illegal strikes], and the referee allowed it.”
Pereira blasted referee Herb Dean on his YouTube channel for allowing the fight to continue despite the fact Gane landed illegal strikes to the back of his head, and told Moicano the veteran referee should be fired by the athletic commission. In fact, “Poatan” said he will refuse fight if Dean is selected as the referee for a future bout.
As for his next step in the UFC, Pereira said he’s suffered no concussion and is injury-free, hoping to get back in action as soon as medically cleared. The former two-division champion said he asked the UFC for an immediate rematch backstage at the White House, but the promotion didn’t give him a clear answer.
Gane currently holds the interim belt and asked to face Tom Aspinall in a title unification bout on the Paris card in September, which was agreed by the Englishman.
“[I’ll stay at] heavyweight, and I’m definitely focused on the title,” Pereira said. “In that fight, that lucky punch — I’d call it a lucky punch, [Gane] closed his eyes when he threw the jab. But I’m definitely going after the belt. He has the belt now. I don’t know if Aspinall is coming back or when he’s coming back. It seems like he already said something about it.”
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