UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Alex Pereira’s loss to Ciryl Gane, saying the former two-division champion has every right to be frustrated by what happened inside the cage.
Since suffering a second-round TKO defeat to Gane in his bid to capture the interim heavyweight title at the UFC White House event, Pereira has repeatedly criticized referee Herb Dean for failing to stop a series of strikes he believes landed illegally to the back of his head.
Reviewing the fight on his YouTube channel, Alexander Volkanovski said he believes Pereira’s complaints are justified, even while giving credit to Gane for his performance.
“Gane did great, fought great,” Volkanovski said. “Was he getting the finish anyway? Probably, but were there back-of-the-head shots? Yes, there were.
“Could there have been a different outcome? Maybe. Pereira was doing the right things to recover. He was working his way back into the fight until a lot of those shots started landing. When you take direct contact to the brain like that, it becomes much harder to recover.
“I’m trying to be really careful because I don’t want to throw shade at anybody, but there were a lot of back-of-the-head shots. A lot of them. If it was someone I didn’t like, I’d probably be much more direct about it.”
Alexander Volkanovski acknowledged that illegal strikes can happen during a finishing sequence, but he believes the referee should have stepped in once the punches became excessive.
“If he lands one or two, you’re not going to disqualify a guy because he’s trying to finish the fight,” Volkanovski said. “But when it goes beyond that, the referee needs to say something.
“We need to have that discussion, and we’re having it now. If Pereira wants people to talk about it, here I am. I’m not taking anything away from Gane, but what happened there deserves a conversation because it was pretty bad.”
The controversy stems from the second round of the fight when Gane stunned Pereira with a jab. As Pereira attempted to recover by shooting for a leg, Gane unleashed a barrage of punches. Several of those strikes appeared to land on the back of Pereira’s head, but Dean allowed the action to continue without issuing a warning.
Alexander Volkanovski admitted he was surprised that the veteran referee did not intervene.
“I was watching and thinking, ‘That’s a lot of back-of-the-head shots,’” Volkanovski said.“I understand it can happen when a fighter is trying to get a finish, but I thought the referee should have stepped in and warned him. I was looking closely at the sequence and it went on for quite a while.
“I’m not taking anything away from Gane because I don’t think he was intentionally trying to hit the back of the head. I think he was trying to find openings, but Pereira’s position made it difficult to land clean shots elsewhere.”
While Pereira has gone as far as suggesting Dean should face consequences for his handling of the fight, Alexander Volkanovski stopped short of calling for punishment. However, he believes a simple warning could have changed the course of the exchange.
“If the referee tells you once or twice, ‘Watch the back of the head,’ then immediately you’re thinking about getting disqualified,” Volkanovski explained. “You’re going to adjust what you’re doing.
“That would have made it harder for Gane to keep landing those shots, so I can understand why Pereira is upset.”
Volkanovski also stressed that fighters often become laser-focused when they smell a finish, which can sometimes lead to accidental fouls.
“You’ve got to remember, when a fighter hurts somebody, they’re trying to get the finish,” Volkanovski said. “I’m not saying Gane did it on purpose.
“But Herb, I love you mate, I feel like you should have been much more vocal. I remember seeing several shots land and there was no warning at all. I kept wondering what was going on.
“Maybe the angle wasn’t great from where he was standing, but there were a lot of back-of-the-head shots happening.”
Although Pereira initially hinted at appealing the result, he and his team have since backed away from that idea. Still, the debate continues, and Alexander Volkanovski’s comments have added weight to the growing discussion about officiating and fighter safety in high-stakes UFC bouts.
