Glover Teixeira has the utmost confidence that Alex Pereira will bounce back after UFC Freedom 250.
Pereira (13-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) was finished by Ciryl Gane in their interim heavyweight title fight
this past June in Washington. Pereira was not happy with referee Herb Dean's officiating, accusing him of missing numerous shots to the back of his head during the fight-ending sequence, which led to a Round 2 TKO."Mistakes happen," Teixeira told MMA Junkie. "Alex maybe show the punch a little bit, it was a perfect timing, and Alex, the timing was a little off there. Ciryl Gane beat him on the time with the jab, knocked him down. Again, a couple of illegal blows over there that could change the direction of the fight if it was stopped, but it is what
it is. It's like for me now, it's going back to the drawing board and start working everything and get back to the top. That's what Alex wants to do."
Pereira was so irate at Dean that he continuously campaigned for the veteran official to get fired. Teixeira was a lot more understanding that mishaps can happen, but suggests Dean has been off his game lately.
"No, again, I say Herb Dean was one of the best referees of all time, right?" Teixeira said. "But it comes with time that we make mistakes, right? Hey, like Alex make a mistake. It's timing in there. I made a mistake. Go with with a shot, that uppercut, got knocked out. Herb Dean, every referee makes mistakes. Human beings make mistakes, right?
"And he made a mistake – lately been doing more mistakes than (should be) with a great referee like that. It's almost seeing a great fighter that is starting to lose fights, starts getting knocked out, it's maybe time to take some time off. Of course, with a fighter, it's time to retire because the age. But as a referee, there's no age for there, right? So it's just take some time because maybe it's overwork, overwhelming himself. It's so much traveling, so much back-to-back. And yeah, take some time off, relax a little bit or less shows because I think maybe he's burned out."
Teixeira confirmed that Pereira plans on staying at heavyweight. Two top five names in Josh Hokit (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) and Sergei Pavlovich were brought up as suggestions, but Teixeira likes the idea of Pereira shutting Hokit up. Hokit has already been trying to build up a fight with Pereira when he was escorted out of the UFC Freedom 250 pre-fight press conference for causing a ruckus when going at him.
"I think Josh Hokit is definitely an easier fight?" Teixeira said. "And the guy's running his mouth, and it's a good fight for Alex to go over there and knock his ass out and get back to the title fight. But either fight, I know he's going to come back stronger. I know he's going to go and fix it like he did when he lost to (Israel) Adesanya, when he lost to (Magomed) Ankalaev – he came back and did it again."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Glover Teixeira: Josh Hokit a good fight for Alex Pereira to 'knock his ass out'
