Alex Pereira watched the UFC 334 main event from cageside at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, and he didn’t agree with the judges. When Ciryl Gane’s hand went up after five rounds with Josh Hokit, Pereira shook his head and turned to his coach, Plinio Cruz. Bloody Elbow reported that Paramount’s cameras stayed locked on the Brazilian through the whole announcement.
He didn’t leave it at body language. In a video posted by vevyrodrigues on Instagram and shared by Championship Rounds on X, Pereira gave his verdict on the heavyweight title fight:
“I thought that was a robbery, man. I thought Hokit won the fight. Man, Gane didn’t do anything. I wanted Ciryl Gane to win, but come on, not like that. Unless I was watching a different fight, man. Really? That’s crazy.”
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Championship Rounds also posted a clip of Pereira pretending to phone the police: “Hello? Can you come down to Madison Square Garden? Yeah, there’s a robbery happening here right now.”
Then came the backstage run-in, which the UFC posted on X and YouTube. Pereira spoke to Hokit in Portuguese and Cruz relayed it in English, according to Bloody Elbow. The line from the clip: “Hey bro. Chama, congrats my brother. For me, you won.” Hokit answered, “Best of luck in your fight. Chama.” Then they shook hands.
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That handshake carries some history. Gane knocked out Pereira in June at UFC Freedom 250, the White House card, and that win made Gane the undisputed heavyweight champion. Pereira has argued the finishing sequence included multiple illegal shots to the back of his head. On that same card, Hokit spent the night trash talking Pereira, trying to bait the former two-division champ into a fight. So the guy telling Hokit he won is the guy Hokit has spent five months needling, and he was giving that verdict against the man who just knocked him out. Fight week makes strange allies.
The fight itself earned the argument. Heavy described it as a back-and-forth war that could have gone either way, with the scorecards hinging on a couple of close early rounds the judges split on. Gane keeps the belt. Hokit wants a rematch, though there’s been no word yet on whether the UFC is interested in running it back right away.
Pereira has his own business first. He’s in camp for Sergei Pavlovich in the UFC 335 co-main event in Las Vegas in December, and he still sits as a top contender at heavyweight. Dana White has said Pereira vs. Hokit would be an awesome fight he’d like to book at some point. Depending on how December goes, Pereira could end up facing either man from Saturday’s main event.
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I’ll take a fighter who watches a decision go against a guy who insulted him for months, then walks backstage and tells that guy he won. No hedging, no polite talk about how hard the fight was to score. Pereira called it a robbery on camera with a title shot dangling in front of him. Now he has to go hit Pavlovich in December to earn the right to settle any of it himself.
