Alex Pereira has had time to sit with his stoppage loss to Ciryl Gane, and he still puts it on Herb Dean. On the Connect Cast podcast, in comments clipped and posted by Championship Rounds on X, the Brazilian argued that Gane had burned through his gas tank chasing a finish, never got one, and was bailed out when the referee stepped in.
“[Gane] wore himself out badly there and couldn’t knock me out,” Pereira said. “They stopped the fight and I was still standing. I wasn’t on the ground.”
He also pointed to Gane’s reaction afterward as proof of how close the Frenchman was to fading. Pereira recalled Gane saying, “I can’t believe it. Thank God it’s over.” Then he added, “You could see how heavily he was breathing.”
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Pereira’s argument is simple. If Dean lets it continue, a gassed Gane is standing in front of one of the most dangerous strikers in the sport, and the result flips.
Where everyone stands now
The loss left Pereira, a former two-division champion, at 0-1 at heavyweight. Gane went on to become undisputed champion, and he makes his first defense against Josh Hokit at UFC 334 on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden. Alexander Volkov told MMA Fighting earlier this year that Gane vs. Pereira for the interim belt felt “more like a promotional or media fight” than a “true title fight.” So Pereira isn’t the only heavyweight with something to say about how that night shook out.
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Pereira gets back in there against Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event of UFC 335 on Dec. 12 in Las Vegas. He’s sitting at No. 3 in the UFC’s heavyweight rankings despite the loss, a spot Rizvan Kuniev called “very strange” ahead of his UFC 333 fight with Volkov. Kuniev even suggested AI must be handling the rankings. Kuniev also said he wants Pereira next, calling him “a very big media name.”
Pereira already has a backup plan. On the same podcast, he said a loss to Pavlovich would send him straight back to 205 pounds for a title shot. “Everyone knows I’m not as heavy as those heavyweights,” he said. “I’m not going to stay there taking a beating with that disadvantage.” Meanwhile, MMA Junkie reported that Israel Adesanya is worried about Pereira’s mindset going into the Pavlovich fight.
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Quick take
I hate an early stoppage more than most people do, and if Pereira had some fight left, he has every right to be mad about it. Still, staying on your feet has never been the standard. Referees wave fights off on the feet all the time when a fighter stops answering back, and Dean was standing closer to that moment than anyone on a podcast couch. The bigger tell is timing. Pereira is blaming the referee for his first heavyweight loss and, in the same conversation, laying out his route back down to light heavyweight if Pavlovich beats him. That sounds like a guy covering both exits before he’s even walked out on Dec. 12.
