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WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Ciryl Gane of France looks to strike Alex Pereira of Brazil in the Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship bout during UFC Freedom 250 at the White House on June 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) | Getty Images
“Poatan” is pissed.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) two-division champion Alex Pereira had his dream of becoming a three-division champion crushed when multi-time Heavyweight title challenger Ciryl Gane stopped him in the second round to win the interim Heavyweight title last night (Sun., June 14, 2026) at UFC Freedom 250 live on Paramount+ on the South Lawn in Washington, D.C (watch highlights).
In his first reaction since the brutal, heartbreaking loss, Pereira accused Gane of landing illegal strikes to the back of his head and believes those shots played a major role in the finish.
“After the jab I dropped, I grabbed his legs,” Pereira said. “It was there, throwing elbows, punches, he’s desperate. He threw a shot he didn’t even believe in, and he wanted to finish the fight in whatever way. He always does that, multiple fights, if you look at his highlights, that’s what you’ll see all the time. I was being very careful about that. Finger in the eye, kick to the groin, that there isn’t supposed to happen, but it does. Even I could potentially do that, but not because I meant to.”
“It’s a contact sport, but on the back of the head?” Pereira continued. “You’re right there, man, you have to be seeing it. But that was the opportunity of a lifetime for him, and the referee was right there to see it. The day before the fight, we had a rules meeting. I asked Plinio Cruz to translate for him, and I told him, ‘Look, man, eye poke, groin strikes, those things can happen. It’s not supposed to, but it can happen. But this guy has a long history of it.’ Dirty shots, throwing punches to the back of the head, elbows. I saw some videos, so I was worried. So I brought that up with him ahead of time and asked him to keep an eye on it.”
Gane has been involved in foul-related controversy before, including his eye poke against Tom Aspinall, his groin strike against Jon Jones, and punches that Junior dos Santos complained were to the back of the head.
Now, Pereira believes another missed foul cost him his chance at history.
“If you watch the footage, multiple shots there, multiple elbows,” Pereira said. “OK, sure, the jab, but given everything that happened, illegal. I was getting up, it became difficult to recover, but I believe that if it wasn’t for those shots, I wouldn’t be in that situation and could have possibly recovered. Maybe not, but they were very hard shots and illegal.”
Pereira then turned his anger toward veteran referee Herb Dean, ripping him for not pausing the action once the alleged illegal strikes landed.
“I told him beforehand, but I think it’s hard putting myself in the referee’s shoes,” Pereira said. “My opponent’s there and catches me, I drop, he starts striking. The ref is watching that they are illegal shots, but he thinks like this, ‘How am I going to stop this fight?’ It’s illegal, it’s in the rules. You’re not going to be wrong if you stop it. It’s in the rules; you stop it. Nobody was going to say anything about the ref. In that scenario, people give him credit as a man. But now he is not a man. He shouldn’t have been refereeing that fight. To be honest, a guy like that should be punished. That’s how it is. It’s a very serious job. It’s a very serious event. What happened, the ref should’ve faced legal consequences for that.”
Pereira was not done.
“A guy like that, he goes out, drinks his beer or drinks his seltzer water, or whatever,” Pereira said. “He gets together with his friends. If he has kids or a nephew, I think that, no, I’m certain, that they look at that ref and say, ‘He’s a coward.’ But they’re his friends, they won’t say that to him. But they think it, ‘He’s a coward.’ Because he was a coward. What frustrates me the most is that I warned him beforehand. But he doesn’t have the guts. He’s not a real man.”
Pereira ended his rant by saying things will only get better if fighters unite and push out referees who repeatedly make mistakes.
As for what is next, “Poatan” wants an immediate rematch with Gane and has already requested it.
“After the event, we were in the hotel, my manager and I got a call, we’ve already spoken [to the UFC],” Pereira said. “The next step, I explained to them, I spoke about the illegal shots, and it was a fight that was good, and the tendency to grow the show, it was starting up. I said the right thing is an immediate rematch. … They asked for some time to get an answer because so much was happening. The event had just happened. They are going to see what they are going to do. I’m going to wait a bit, but very soon, we will have an answer.”
Whether UFC agrees with Pereira’s version of events remains to be seen, but “Poatan” is clearly not ready to let this loss go, and after coming up short in his historic bid to become UFC’s first three-division champion, he wants Gane again.
For complete UFC Freedom 250 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.
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