Alex Pereira has the support of fellow UFC star Alexander Volkanovski.
Since losing in his bid to claim the interim heavyweight title at UFC White House after being knocked out by Ciryl Gane, Pereira has been on the warpath complaining about Gane’s finishing assault being aided by illegal strikes to the back of the head and referee Herb Dean’s failure to intervene.
Reviewing the UFC White House co-main event on his YouTube channel, Volkanovski explained why he thinks Pereira’s protests are justified.
“Gane did great, fought great,” Volkanovski said. “Was he getting the finish anyway? Probably, but was there back of the head shots? Yes, there was. Could there be a different outcome if you hurt Pereira—because he was obviously doing the right stuff to recover, so he’s on his way to recover until there was a lot of other shots and I explained where I thought them shots were landing. And then he was getting wobbled and wobbled and you get the direct contact on the brain like that, so that’s going to be hard to recover from. That’s a tricky one. … I’m trying to be really nice about this because I don’t want to throw shade on people, but I mean, there was a lot of back-of-the-head shots. A lot of them. To be honest, if it was someone that I didn’t like that did that, I’d probably be a lot more clear with how I’m saying this, because there was a lot of them.”
“If he does one or two, do you disqualify a guy for that, no, because he’s going for the finish, that’s going to happen,” Volkanovski added. “But when there’s more than that, alright, something should have been said by the ref. We need to have that discussion and we’re having that discussion. And if Pereira’s asking for people to speak about it, here I am. I’m not taking away from Gane, but that instance, we need to have conversations about that because that was pretty bad.”
In the second round of their fight, Gane wobbled Pereira with a hard jab, prompting the former two-division champion to dive for one of Gane’s legs in an attempt to recover. Gane continued to throw heavy punches, with several appearing to land in an illegal area on the back of Pereira’s head, but Dean did not make any indication that the action should be paused.
Volkanovski isn’t sure how Dean missed the illegal strikes during the prolonged sequence.
“I was watching and being like, ‘Far out, that’s a lot of back-of-the-head shots,’ Volkanovski said. “I get it’s going to happen when you’re going for it, but the ref, I think he should have been pulling him up as he’s doing it. I was trying to look when he was doing it. This is how long it was actually happening for. Again, I don’t want to take nothing away from Gane, but obviously I’m breaking down fights and this is what I seen.
”Straight away there was a lot of back-of-the-head shots, I thought. And the only things he could sort of do was these sort of shots because [Pereira’s] head was high, some of his face was hidden on the leg, so [Gane] can maybe try and get around, but because he was deep on the single and he was trying to use this arm, getting around was hard, so it was like, ‘I’m not really going to get clean shots unless it’s on the back of the head.’ I feel, like, Gane maybe was he thinking, ‘I want to hit him in the back of the head?’ No, I don’t think he was thinking that. I think he was trying to get around, but he wasn’t in position that he could.”
The bulk of Pereira’s complaint has been aimed at Dean, with the Brazilian star going as far as to say that Dean should face some sort of punishment. Volkanovski isn’t as harsh with his criticism, but he is curious as to why the veteran referee declined to take any action in the moment.
“That’s out the window if you hit him once or twice [and the referee says] ‘Back of the head, watch the back of the head,’ Volkanovski said. “You’re going to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to get disqualified here. I’m not going to keep doing that.’ Then it would have been harder for him to keep hurting him. So I can see why Pereira would be mad.”
“You’ve got to remember, Gane, this is going to happen with fighters,” Volkanovski added. “You hurt someone, you’re going for the finish, this stuff’s going to happen. Because you’re trying to go for the finish and you go for it. I’m not saying Gane did it on purpose, but I felt like the ref, maybe you know Herb I love you, mate, but I feel like you should have been pretty vocal, watch the back of the head. I remember looking and seeing a couple of them and he wasn’t. He’s not even telling him to watch the back of the head, I’m like, what’s going on here? Maybe the angle was a bad angle for him, but that’s how many back-of-the-head shots was happening.”
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