Alex Pereira says his anger after the Ciryl Gane finish is still aimed at Herb Dean, not at Gane as a fighter.
Pereira spoke with TheMacLife in Serbia after the heavyweight controversy. The interview video is embedded below, and the longer quote blocks come from the verified transcript of that source.
Pereira Describes Serbia And Fan Reaction
For sure. It’s very important for me to be here, to be prestigious at the event, to meet other cultures. The experience I have here is not enough because I stay at the hotel more than usual. Yesterday we left, we went to a park, a castle, or something like that. We were seeing the van, so I managed to leave a little bit yesterday and it was a great experience.
It’s great to be here, I see how people come in here, I’m leaving and entering the hotel. People are always waiting there, taking pictures, autographs. Today, right here, in the interview with the fans, I saw them talking a lot, the amount I’m motivating them, so it’s very important for me to listen.
Pereira Says Heavyweight Is Still The Plan
Pereira did not frame the Gane loss as a reason to leave heavyweight. He tied the move to the same third-title chase he carried into the fight, after saying the third UFC belt remained his mission.
No, for sure. The plan is to stay in the heavyweight class, I put a mission ahead, I have to find a belt, it’s something unedited, and I have this opportunity.
It’s all a risk, as I said, everything is risky, even in the middle, a little heavy. Just being up there is a risk, and going up two categories, I think I’m doing the right thing, I think everything I did, I had a good result, I had one or two losses, but I managed to run after the loss, I showed that and I can do it now.
Like I said in there, it’s all about the risk, it’s a risk in the middleweight, a light heavyweight, but moving up two divisions, the risk just gets bigger and bigger, I’ve been able to do a lot of things, I had a few losses along the way, but just keep moving forward.
Pereira is now listed at 13-4 in MMA after the Gane defeat. Gane is listed at 14-2, keeping him near the top of the heavyweight title picture while Pereira tries to keep his three-division plan alive.
Why Pereira Blames Dean More Than Gane
The key exchange was direct: why stay angry with Dean, but not Gane? Pereira separated fighter chaos from referee responsibility.
Mistakes happen in fights, and the fighters are obviously under a lot of adrenaline, and kind of taking by the moment, so things happen, but I don’t think the ref has the benefit of not being in there, and being emotional or anything else, so I got jabbed, I felt it, and maybe I could have recovered better, I had a lot of legal blows, then some illegal blows, and I just think the ref is the one that needs to be the one to step in, and really see what’s legal and what’s not legal, and that’s not necessarily the fighters’ place.
That answer keeps the argument close to the officiating issue. Andy Foster defended Dean over the stoppage complaints, while Big John McCarthy said some Gane shots were illegal but most were legal. Pereira’s point is that Dean had the job of controlling the sequence once the follow-up shots started.
Pereira Does Not Need The Josh Hokit Fight
The interview also moved to Josh Hokit, who used Pereira’s name during the same stretch of heavyweight noise. Pereira did not treat the callout as a fight he needs.
Actually, I don’t need it, because it’s a way he wants to promote himself, promote his way, I think he knows when I say my name, he starts to appear, that’s what happened, because he forgot his fight, because maybe he wouldn’t give all that engagement, but talking my name, he knows how it would be, so maybe it was intelligent, but in a wrong way.
Hokit has already been pulled into several UFC heavyweight side stories, including his defense of Dean after Pereira criticized the referee. Pereira treated the attention as promotion, not as a matchup that advances his own plan.
Pereira Also Discussed Conor McGregor
The final quoted exchange involved Pereira introducing his sons to Conor McGregor, a moment that came after McGregor had told Pereira to move on from the Gane loss.
It was really cool because I hadn’t ran into him yet, I don’t know if he’s even fought since I’ve been in the UFC, but my sons also are big fans, and it was really cool for them to be able to meet him, and I was really happy to be able to give that to them.
Pereira remains a former UFC middleweight champion and two-time light heavyweight champion. His current heavyweight run now sits between the Gane controversy, the referee debate, and his stated goal of chasing a third UFC belt.
