Alexander Volkanovski backs Alex Pereira illegal strikes claim

Former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has weighed in on Alex Pereira's complaints about illegal strikes in his UFC White House loss to Ciryl Gane, and he believes the Brazilian has a point.

Pereira dropped his bid for the interim heavyweight title earlier this month when Gane stopped him in the second round at the White House event. Since the knockout, Pereira has raised concerns about Gane landing punches to the back of his head while referee Herb Dean stood by without intervening. Breaking down the finish on his YouTube channel, Volkanovski said the illegal blows affected the outcome. "Was there back of the head shots? Yes, there was," Volkanovski said, per MMA Fighting. "Could there be a different outcome if you hurt Pereira — because he was obviously doing the right stuff to recover, so he's on his way to recover until there was a lot of other shots and I explained where I thought them shots were landing."

Volkanovski questions why Herb Dean stayed silent

The sequence in question occurred after Gane tagged Pereira with a hard jab and the former two-division champion shot for a takedown to buy time. As Pereira held onto Gane's leg with his head pressed high against the Frenchman's thigh, Gane continued punching. Volkanovski noted that Gane's positioning made clean legal strikes difficult, forcing him to aim at areas where Pereira's head was exposed. The Australian said he does not believe Gane threw the shots intentionally but questioned why Dean failed to warn him. "He's not even telling him to watch the back of the head, I'm like, what's going on here?" Volkanovski said. "Maybe the angle was a bad angle for him, but that's how many back-of-the-head shots was happening."

Volkanovski stopped short of calling for punishment against Dean, the target of Pereira's harshest criticism, but said the referee should have stepped in during the prolonged barrage. He argued that a verbal warning would have changed Gane's approach and possibly given Pereira a chance to survive. "If he does one or two, do you disqualify a guy for that, no, because he's going for the finish, that's going to happen," Volkanovski said. "But when there's more than that, alright, something should have been said by the ref."

No immediate rematch has been scheduled. Pereira has not indicated his next move since the loss.

Original reporting:

• mmafighting.com — Alexander Volkanovski defends Alex Pereira, thinks Ciryl Gane’s illegal strikes made ‘direct contact on the brain’ | MMA Fighting