The aura loss Alex Pereira has suffered since his loss to Ciryl Gane is reaching an all-time level for the sport of MMA. Pereira speed-ran his way to being a UFC two division champion and future Hall of Famer with a series of sensational knockouts and a fascinating feud with Israel Adesanya. But after losing at the White House, Pereira has been more Pout-atan than Poatan.
He’s grumbled about the officiating in his fight with Ciryl Gane repeatedly and called for the ouster of veteran referee Herb Dean
(he’s not alone on that, though). And more recently he expressed his dissatisfaction at Josh Hokit being given a title shot against Gane in November.
Pereira said he believed the UFC had focus-groupedheavyweight title pairings and that Gane vs. Hokit came out on top. He also said Daniel Cormier was somehow involved in pumping up the possibility for that fight. Cormier and Dana White have since responded to those comments, calling them untrue and “paranoid”.
Henry Cejudo, who is in the champ-champ club with Pereira and Cormier, offered his take on Pereira, during the podcast he does with Kamaru Usman. He was brutal in his assessment, telling Pereira to accept the situation, while suggesting that Pereira had been spoiled up until this point by the UFC.
“This is something that I will say about Alex Pereira and it’s part of him being a bit spoiled,” Cejudo started. “Alex, I’m not picking on you, I’m just seeing what’s been done with you and how it’s been that you’ve skipped lines. You’ve skipped the line long enough bro.”
“You had your opportunity against Ciryl Gane and you lost,” he continued. “There were illegal blows, I agree with you on that, but man, that jab from Ciryl Gane wobbled you. Ciryl Gane was just keeping on his feet and we saw where the fight was likely going. It’s your first debut at heavyweight, man. It is what it is. To be upset, after not having a fight at heavyweight and then getting a shot to fight for the interim title at the White House? Bro, there’s no complaining here. I feel like he needs to win at least two or three more to fight for the title. I think there’s a lot of people in line.”
Cejudo then listed off two fighters he felt had claims to the title over Pereira. Those were Alexander Volkov, who was robbed of a decision win over Gane a few years ago, and Curtis Blaydes, who is coming off a loss to Hokit earlier this year.
“Alex, the reality is, you have to know and see where people are coming from,” Cejudo said. “I don’t see it as ‘Oh my god, Alex is making history, oh my god he’s become champion in two and a half years.’ No, he’s been given the opportunity by the UFC. He didn’t go the Kamaru Usman route where he fought everyone in the top ten before he fought the number one contenders. That takes f**king years. They liked his fighting style. They liked his vicious knockouts. ‘Here you go bro, this is what we need, this is what the casuals want, this is what you get.’”
Let’s audit Cejudo’s claims here.
Pereira joined the UFC in 2021 and debuted with a flying knee KO on Andreas Michailidis. He then won a decision over Bruno Silva and KO’d Sean Strickland. That earned him his title fight with Israel Adesanya in November, 2022. He beat Adesanya to win the title and then lost it in the rematch six months later.
Pereira then went up in weight and took a split decision over Jan Blachowicz. He was then given a shot at the vacant title against former champ Jiri Prochazka, which he won. He then defended against Jamahal Hill, Prochazka again, and Khalil Rountree before losing to Magomed Ankalaev. He got an immediate rematch versus Ankalaev, which he won. Then he moved up in weight and was given the Gane fight at the White House for the interim belt, which has since been converted into the real deal.
It’s certainly true that Pereira didn’t have to fight a long list of ranked opponents before getting his title shot. And I think it’s also true that Pereira has benefitted from having match-ups with fellow strikers throughout his career.
I think the swiftness of Pereira’s title shot was due to the storyline between him and Adesanya, which extended back to their GLORY days together. It felt inevitable that these two would meet when Pereira switched to MMA and I think the UFC just capitalized on that and gave us what we wanted; which resulted in two great fights and finishes.
When it comes to getting matched against fellow strikers, I think that’s just a product of who is and was around at the top of these divisions.
I think it’s true that we are living in an Age of Strikers right now and that Pereira’s arrival might represent the vanguard of that movement, as the UFC leaned into manufacturing shorter and more violent fights. Those do better on TikTok and create more space to put commercials between. Using Contender Series to screen for KO artists, signing regional fighters to go against top prospects and cutting wrestlers are all things the UFC is doing to pursue that goal. And it’s worked, too. Look at how many finishes we are getting on each card now.
So I think Cejudo is right that Pereira’s style helped him get pushed by the UFC into big opportunities and I agree that the company is marketing to casuals now — who want to see someone unconscious more than they want to see a back-and-forth, highly technical and multi-dimensional fight. But to call Pereira spoiled… that feels a little much and might be sour grapes from a man who has never seen things come easy from the UFC.
