Alex Pereira misplaced his UFC gentle heavyweight title this previous Saturday in Las Vegas, with Magomed Ankalaev narrowly successful an in depth five-round determination to say the 205-pound gold in the primary occasion of UFC 313.
Unsurprisingly, Pereira’s coaches disagree with the scorecards.
Plinio Cruz and Glover Teixeira mentioned the consequence on a video posted Wednesday on Pereira’s YouTube page, saying they noticed their fighter being superior in rounds one, three and 5. All three judges have been unanimous in giving “Poatan” the sting within the first, with just one decide scoring the fifth in his favor. Ankalaev gained the third spherical with a 10-9 rating in each official scorecard.
“We had this defeat, however in my view he gained,” Teixeira stated. “He misplaced on factors, so now we return to the drafting board and regulate a number of issues, practice exhausting and return and get this rematch and make historical past. Poatan has made historical past earlier than, and he’ll make historical past once more. He’s an important warrior and I’m very pleased with him.”
Cruz echoed Teixeira and vowed to assist Pereira get again on monitor and reclaim the belt if given a rematch. On high of that, Cruz noticed UFC 313 as a studying expertise not just for the fighter, however the whole staff.
“Life is fabricated from ups and downs, and people ups and downs are what make us who we’re on this journey to our objective,” Cruz stated. “We’ll come again stronger, regroup as a staff. The vibe was nice this week, we’ve got no excuses. Poatan was fantastic, and I feel he gained the struggle. This can be a stumble, not a fall, and it’ll solely make him stronger, our staff stronger. People evolve extra in occasions of adversity.
“Rivalries make us develop. It went his means this time, so we’ll practice extra, research extra, get higher, to ship you a greater model of Poatan. Extra imply. What this man’s achieved was make it worse for him as a result of now he’ll struggle ‘Poatan 2.0.’ It’s occurred to Poatan earlier than, it’s not the primary time, and a real champion is the one which stumbles however continues shifting ahead and reconquers it. Poatan will reconquer the belt within the rematch. A extra imply model. And our staff will likely be on a stage that’s greater than it already is.”
Pereira complained about Ankalaev’s technique instantly after the bout, saying judges shouldn’t reward a fighter that holds onto his opponents for many of a spherical, however has but to observe the struggle to provide his personal ideas on the choice.
“After all it’s not the consequence I needed,” Pereira stated. “We have been assured for this struggle, I used to be nicely. I educated exhausting. Some issues occur, after all, however I don’t need to give excuses. I do know we’ll have the rematch, we’re already in talks — for every part I’ve achieved and the way in which the struggle went. Many individuals contested [the decision] and have been unsure. I haven’t watched the struggle but, I’ll watch to have my opinion, [because] it’s exhausting to have an concept whenever you’re in there.”
