Alex Pereira lost the light heavyweight championship to Magomed Ankalaev UFC 313 on March 8 and it was rumored that “Poatan” fought the Russian injured and sick.
UFC commentator and popular podcast host Joe Rogan disclosed that Pereira entered the fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with a hand injury and battling illness.
“They say he fought with a broken hand and norovirus against Ankalaev,” Rogan claimed on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. “He’s fought with a broken toe before. When he beat Jiri Prochazka, he had a f**ked up knee. Remember when he (Pereira) tumbled at the end of the fight, that’s because his knee wouldn’t support him. He was basically fighting on one leg in the first fight.”
On Wednesday, Pereira confirmed
“I’m not trying to take away from Ankalaev. Many people try to do that kind of thing. I’m not this type of guy. Everybody goes through problems. I’m sure he had his own problems too,” Pereira said during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I had mine. My hand is fine, but it did happen, a lot of things, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse.”
“I don’t want to make an excuse. I don’t want to like use this as leverage for anything. My moment is going to come to win the belt and I’ll disclose everything for you guys,” added the former middleweight and light heavyweight champion.
While Pereira did not reveal what specific problems other than his hand that he had heading into the UFC 313 title fight, but they were significant enough that he considered pulling out of the event.
“This was one of the more complicated fight camps from everything that happened,” he said.
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Alex Pereira has no regrets about fighting Magomed Ankalaev injured
If you ask fighters, most will tell you heading into a fight completely healthy and injury free is a rare occurrence. Something is always a little banged up.
Pereira lost the 205-pound championship but has no regrets about his decision to not pull out of the fight.
“I do not regret because, like I said, I’ve conquered a lot. I’ve been motivating a lot of people. Many times I pushed through things. I was able to overcome. Many times it worked. This time was not my moment, but I do not regret,” Pereira said.
