Alex Pereira claims illegal blows saved exhausted Ciryl Gane

Alex Pereira says Ciryl Gane landed illegal blows to survive their UFC White House interim heavyweight title fight, and that the Frenchman was already fading before the second-round stoppage.

Pereira dropped his bid for a third divisional belt when Gane stopped him midway through the second round on June 14. Gane landed cleaner early, connecting with jabs and low kicks while Pereira struggled to close distance. A jab dropped the Brazilian in round two, and Gane swarmed with a flurry that included what Pereira and his camp say were multiple strikes to the back of the head. Referee Herb Dean let the action continue, and the fight was waved off moments later with Pereira bloodied on the canvas.

Pereira: Gane 'does not have heart'

Speaking to Ariel Helwani through a translator, Pereira said the finish only happened because Dean missed fouls that allowed Gane to land the decisive sequence before his own conditioning collapsed. "Ciryl, the way that he was gassing after the fight was over, if I had the chance to survive ... the end of the second round, Ciryl does not survive the fight because he does not have heart," Pereira said, per Yahoo Sports. "You could see in his eyes. I got robbed in that moment."

Pereira added that Gane was flat on his back after the stoppage because he had already emptied his tank forcing the finish. "Ciryl was lying down [after the fight] because he was dead tired," he said. "That's why he really had to hit me with those [potentially illegal] shots so he could handle that."

Gane has gone five rounds multiple times in his UFC career, including a war with Tai Tuivasa in which he was dropped early and recovered to win on volume. Pereira has been outspoken since the loss, a departure from his usual reserved demeanor, and is now angling for either a rematch or a bout with surging heavyweight Josh Hokit, who fought on the same card and has called for the matchup.

Reported via:

• MMA Mania — Alex Pereira argues illegal blows saved ’dead tired’ Ciryl Gane: ‘He doesn’t have heart’