Pereira Accuses UFC and Cormier of Selling Gane vs. Hokit

Alex Pereira is unhappy with the UFC and with former double champion Daniel Cormier. In an interview with Laerte Viana, the Brazilian said the promotion and Cormier worked together to convince fans that Ciryl Gane against Josh Hokit was a good fight.

Pereira had wanted a rematch with Gane, the heavyweight champion. He believes Gane landed illegal blows to the back of his head in their UFC Freedom 250 bout, which ended with a second-round TKO loss for Pereira. The matchmakers went another way. Gane will make his first title defense against the undefeated Hokit at UFC 334, and Pereira meets Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335.

"At first, the UFC said they did a poll, and that this will be the fight," Pereira said. "I said, OK... It's all kind of manipulated. I saw before the announcement that Cormier and other guys saying that it will be a good fight. Hey go ahead, say that this fight is good so that when we drop it, the public will be OK with it and agree with you. I think they did everything there to make people believe that this should be the fight."

A question for Cormier

Pereira also described a conversation with Cormier. He asked whether he would be the champion if he beat Gane. According to Pereira, Cormier answered: "I don't think so."

"So the guy has opinions that don't make sense," Pereira said.

The background is the heavyweight move he made this year. Pereira vacated his 205-pound belt to try to become the first fighter in the company to win titles in three divisions.

He debuted at heavyweight on June 14 at the White House against Gane for the interim 265-pound title and was knocked out in round two. The loss ended his hopes of becoming the first three-division champion.

Source: LowKick MMA