Former two-division champion Alex Pereira made the walk from the Oval Office to the octagon on The White House lawn last Sunday with the opportunity to make history. The Brazilian took on Ciryl Gane in the UFC Freedom 250 co-main event for the interim heavyweight championship. If victorious, “Poatan” would have become the first fighter in the promotion’s history to win titles in three different weight classes.
Gane finished Pereira in the second round after dropping Pereira with a stiff jab. It began a sequence that ended with Pereira out on his feet. The former two-division titleholder called the shot “lucky.”
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“In the fight I felt really good. My training, we had a super camp, everyone helping me. I was feeling really good just that I’ve never fought at that weight, but I felt good in the octagon,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel.
“Unfortunately the punch landed, that jab. Like I said. it’s heavyweight. The punches are stronger. But I would say it was a lucky jab, a lucky shot because if you throw it closing your eyes and lowering your head, cool, the shot landed. That’s where everything started. That’s where it started going well for him. But it was a lucky jab. After he took advantage and started landing heavy shots.
While Pereia was on the mat trying to cover up and get back to his feet, Gane hammered away with punches and elbows. Pereira alleged several of Gane’s strikes landed to the back of the head and were illegal.
“After the jab I dropped. I grabbed his legs. It was there, throwing elbows and punches. He’s desperate. He threw a shot that he didn’t even believe in and he wanted to finish the fight in whatever way,” said Pereira. “He always does that. Multiple fights. If you look at his highlights that’s what you’ll see all the time. I was being careful about that, finger in the eye, kick to the groin. That there isn’t supposed to happen, but it does. Even I could potentially do that but not because I meant to. It’s a contact sport. But on the back of the head?
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“A punch to the back of the head, you’re right there, man. You have to be seeing it. But that was the opportunity of a lifetime for him. And the referee was right there to see it”
Heading into the matchup, Pereira was worried about what he saw as Gane’s tendency to break the rules in the past. He said he spoke with the referee during backstage instructions about it. He also claimed the allegedly illegal shots played a role in the outcome of the fight.
“If you watch the footage, man, multiple shots there, multiple elbows,” Pereira said. “Okay, sure. The Jab. But given everything that happened illegal. I was getting up. It became difficult to recover. But I believe that if it wasn’t for those shots I’d be in that situation and could have possibly recovered. Maybe not, but they were very hard shots and illegal. Illegal shots.”
