There was a time in MMA when a few superstar names felt untouchable—fighters like Conor McGregor could seemingly do no wrong, headlining cards and calling shots with the kind of pull that made them feel bigger than the UFC itself. But according to former UFC fighter turned analyst Josh Thomson, those days are long gone.
Alex Pereira, the former two-division champ, has been one of the UFC’s most popular and reliable headliners. He’s stepped up on short notice for huge events like UFC 300 and 303, and despite a close decision loss to Magomed Ankalaev, he’s stayed near the top of the light heavyweight ranks.
But on Tuesday morning, Pereira dropped a pretty heated post on X that raised some eyebrows. Without going into specifics, he hinted that something the UFC said or did really didn’t sit right with him. So much so that he’s now questioning whether he even wants to keep fighting.
“I’ve always answered the UFC’s calls,” he wrote, adding, “but if they want to play games, we can play. What I just heard has left me really disheartened.” Pereira soon clarified that his account was hacked and that it was not him who put out the tweet, only to be called a liar by Daniel Cormier.
Thompson also joined the bandwagon and shared his thoughts on fighters like him overestimating their importance to the UFC.
He said, “Everyone is dispensable, no one is safe these days. No one is safe, Conor is not safe, Alex is not safe, it does not matter who you are. It doesn’t matter.”
“The sport is now officially bigger than any athlete. It does not matter, and you know if you’re a fighter, you do not have anywhere else to go that will make you the same amount of money,” he added.
UFC veteran, Cormier, however, a lot to add.
Cormier claims Pereira threw a tantrum
Cormier isn’t buying Alex Pereira’s “I got hacked” excuse. On his show Good Guy/Bad Guy, Cormier claimed that the original message was way too specific to be a random hack, and more likely, Pereira tweeted it in the heat of the moment, got a call from the UFC, and then tried to do damage control.
Cormier thinks this may have something to do with UFC executive Hunter Campbell’s recent visit to Dagestan—not just to meet Islam Makhachev, but possibly to line up a fight for Magomed Ankalaev too, who shares a manager with Makhachev.
“I love Alex Pereira but I don’t think he was hacked. I believe that Alex Pereira probably got the news that someone else is going to fight for the belt, reacted and then this thing with Makhachev worked out to where the light heavyweight title fight doesn’t need to happen, so now it’s okay,” he claimed.
Cormier admits it’s just speculation, but he’s confident he’s close to the truth.
