Alex Pereira knew he wouldn’t come out of UFC 320 unscathed and he has been given an official diagnosis.
Pereira took care of business in his rematch with Magomed Ankalaev, regaining the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship via TKO in the first round. As “Poatan” retaliated, he told reporters he thought he suffered a broken foot during the fight that lasted barely more than a minute.
During a UFC Rio Q&A session, Pereira provided an update on his injury (h/t MMAfighting).
“I had an X-ray in Las Vegas and an MRI here and we have a fracture in my foot, but I still don’t know what will happen or how long it will take for me to recover,” Pereira said during a question and answer session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ahead of Saturday’s UFC Rio event. “I think it’s good to focus on this White House [date]it’s something that interests me. I think I’m going to focus on this.”
Despite his injury, Pereira felt he could have stayed longer in the rematch against Ankalaev. He even joked about his failure to perform a Nate Diaz-like move on his opponent.
“It was a great sensation,” Pereira said. “That’s what we train hard for. We want to be in there and do our best, be the best. I made a clean hit to the elbows and he came and grabbed my legs. There was an opening and my elbow landed clean. When I landed the first one and saw blood, I started hitting and the referee stopped it. But I think it could have lasted a little longer because I promised to hit him in the face and I couldn’t do that.”
Pereira will be out of action until 2026, but he remains hopeful of a spot on the UFC White House card. “Poatan” has expressed interest in meeting Jon Jones at the historic event. Whether or not the UFC brass will book the fight will be an interesting question looming over the MMA community.
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