Alex Pereira claim denied by Dana White and Daniel Cormier
The UFC boss called fighters “paranoid,” while Cormier played a clip to show Pereira had asked about being the greatest of all time.
Dana White and Daniel Cormier on Tuesday (Oct. 13) denied Alex Pereira’s claim that the UFC manipulated fans to justify the heavyweight title fight between Ciryl Gane and Josh Hokit. White answered reporters in Las Vegas after the Contender Series season finale, while Cormier responded in a video on his YouTube channel.
Alex Pereira’s claim against the UFC and Cormier
In an interview with Brazilian journalist Laerte Viana released Monday (Oct. 12), Pereira said he never saw the fan poll the UFC used to justify Gane vs. Hokit. “Okay, I didn’t agree with it, but they’re the ones in charge. It was all kind of manipulated, you know?” he said. He also named Cormier, a UFC commentator, among those who pushed the matchup before it was announced, as VF Comunica reported in Alex Pereira accuses UFC of manipulating fans to book Gane vs. Hokit.
The title fight headlines UFC 334 on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Pereira lost to Gane by second-round TKO on June 14 at UFC Freedom 250 and wanted an immediate rematch. The UFC went with Hokit, who is 10-0.
Dana White calls fighters “paranoid”
White did not hold back. “Of course that’s not true. These guys are the most paranoid people on the planet,” he said. “I’ve never told DC to say anything, ever. It doesn’t work like that. We don’t operate like that.”
He added that the promotion has more than 700 fighters under contract and does not script what anyone says. “I don’t tell the fighters what to say, I don’t tell the commentators what to say,” White said. “We don’t police any of that stuff.” He pointed to Sean Strickland as proof: if the UFC did, he said, Strickland would have been gone three years ago.
Strickland is also part of the ongoing debate over fighter pay, the subject of VF Comunica’s story on Brendan Allen saying UFC fighters are underpaid.
The GOAT question behind the dispute
Cormier took a calmer tone. “I was not told by the UFC to promote this as the fight to happen,” he said. “Again, I have nothing against Alex Pereira. If anything, I consider him a buddy of mine.”
The key point was the conversation Pereira described. In the Laerte Viana interview, Pereira said he asked Cormier whether beating Gane would make him champion, and that Cormier answered, “Man, I don’t think so.” Cormier played a clip of the exchange, which took place before the White House card, with the question relayed by Pereira’s coach and translator, Plinio Cruz.
According to Cormier, Pereira had asked whether a win over Gane would make him the greatest of all time. “I didn’t say he wouldn’t be the champ; I said he wouldn’t be the GOAT, yet,” Cormier said. “I also said, of course, if he beats Ciryl Gane, he’d be the champion.”
He allowed for a misunderstanding. “I think that could just be a miscommunication. We don’t talk the same language,” he said. The gap matters: Pereira used that answer as proof that Cormier’s opinions made no sense. If the question was about GOAT status, the answer reads very differently.
Alex Pereira’s next step toward a title shot
Cormier also said that if Pereira wins his next fight, he deserves to face the Gane vs. Hokit winner. Pereira (13-4) meets Russia’s Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335 on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
That bout is the co-main event. Charles Oliveira and Diego Lopes headline the card, as VF Comunica covered in Charles Oliveira eyes title shot, wants answers from Gaethje.
What do you think: a translation mix-up, or is Pereira right to be suspicious of the UFC? Tell us in the comments.
Read more:
- Alex Pereira says Valter Walker ran, offers his purse for sparring
- Alex Pereira accuses UFC of manipulating fans to book Gane vs. Hokit
- Is Poatan a Jiu-Jitsu black belt? Alex Pereira’s promotion and his record on the ground
