Alex Pereira reacts to Magomed Ankalaev
claiming he goes to UFC events for “free alcohol”“I know the pain of the people. He is playing with the feelings of
the fans, feelings of the people who go through that.”Advertisement
🎥 @AlexPereiraUFC
#UFC313pic.twitter.com/G1yDUWOrNi
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
March 4, 2025
Alex
Pereira overcame a significant obstacle in his life to become a
Ultimate Fighting Championship title holder.
A former Glory kickboxing champ, Pereira’s career might have ended
if not for a taunt from Israel
Adesanya. While Adesanya had gone on to become a UFC champ, he
once said that the only man to beat him twice in kickboxing must be
drinking in a bar in Brazil. That motivated Pereira to start
training and transition to MMA. The rest is history.
Pereira is scheduled to defend his light heavyweight title against
Magomed
Ankalaev in the main event at UFC 313
on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Taking aim at
Pereira’s past, Ankalaev recently said that “Poatan” frequents
other UFC events for the free alcohol. While Pereira claims to not
care much about everything else Ankalaev says, he did take note of
the comments on alcohol. Pereira believes it is a sensitive subject
Ankalaev is playing with, even with respect to fans. However, the
champ promises to make Ankalaev pay if the Russian can’t back up
his talk with action.
“I don’t even pay attention to what he says, the thing he said most
about was the alcohol. I don’t have that feeling just for me,
because I know the pain of the people,” Pereira said on his YouTube
channel. “He is playing with the feelings of the fans, feelings of
the people who go through that. For what he is going to do at the
fight, what he isn’t going to do, I just stick to myself. I don’t
say anything. If I say something and don’t do it, it will get ugly
for me. If he isn’t able to do what he said, he will have
consequences with that. I don’t pay attention to that.”
Meanwhile, Pereira considers his battle with alcoholism as one of
the biggest wins of his career. While recently motivating his
teammates, Pereira said that one can become a champion in life by
bettering themselves even if they don’t become a UFC champ.
“If you can’t be a champion as a fighter, you can be a champion in
life, you can be a better person, a better father, a better mother,
a better brother,” he said on the UFC 313 Countdown show. “This is important
too… I stopped drinking after four years of training. I already
won, that’s a victory. I already won, so I’m a champion in
life.”
One of the most active champs in the UFC, Pereira has defended his
title three times within a the span of a year. Meanwhile, Ankalaev
is unbeaten since his lone pro loss against Paul Craig
in his UFC debut in 2018.