Ex-UFC Star and Fans Blames Fighters Like Alex Pereira and Charles Oliveira for Lack of English Skills, Harming Their Global Appeal

A former UFC star has ignited a passionate discourse among fans with her latest tweet. Diana Belbita is a Romanian former UFC strawweight fighter who retired in April this year after suffering 3 defeats in a row. However, the former strawweight has now taken shots at champions like Alex Pereira and legends like Anderson Silva.

In her latest tweet, she spoke about how all UFC fighters should be able to speak English. Interesting, Belbita is not the only fighter to share this opinion. In fact, Khabib Nurmagomedov ensures that any fighter who joins his team from Dagestan is immediately enrolled in English-speaking classes.

The only reason for this is that the UFC is a global sport with English working as a common denominator across the world. It’s also the primary language in the USA, the home of the UFC and its core audience.

So the language helps the fighters be more marketable and personable. It’s probably why fans also passionately chimed in on the discussion, many of whom agreed with the former fighter.

This fan gave the example of Anderson Silva to show how important learning the language is, “We are the biggest UFC audience… and if you want to be a star it sure does help. Anderson Silva was not a huge draw… and his fights were amazing. But didn’t have a big PPV till he fought Chael.”

We are the biggest UFC audience… and if you want to be a star it sure does help. Anderson Silva was not a huge draw… and his fights were amazing. But didn’t have a big PPV till he fought Chael

— Jake Kemp (@AZKempDawg) May 18, 2025

Another fan called out Charles Oliveira for not learning English, “Charles in the UFC for 15 years and no English.” However, some fans think, fighters like ‘Do Bronx’ and Alex Pereira not speaking any English only adds to their ‘aura.’

“Not speaking English only works for superstars like Poatan or Do Bronx, fans rly only care about the in-octogan performance. If a fighter is average then yeah, speaking English helps a lot!!”.

“So Alex Pereira can lose some aura? No, thank you,” asserted another. 

Pereira certainly is a unique case. However, it can also mean that he’s an anomaly – an exception to the rule. For fighters like Khabib and Islam Makhachev, English has helped them push their stardom past what was expected of them.

Just think about how much content the UFC is able to milk out of Islam’s English interviews and press conferences. His conversations with Daniel Cormier get so many views that the UFC might as well declare it an IP and monetize it.

Notably, before Islam’s lightweight title fight against Charles Oliveira at UFC 280, the Dagestani had chided Do Bronx for an inability to speak or understand English.

Thankfully, Islam had the benefit of Khabib’s experience to guide him through.

Khabib explains why he learnt English

Back in 2012, when a young 24-year-old Nurmagomedov stepped into the AKA gym for the first time, he could barely communicate with his coach Javier Mendez. But after a few fights, his English improved drastically, and he didn’t even need a translator anymore.

In a video posted on his official Facebook page, he spoke about why it was important for him to learn English.

“I told them, hey you guys have to speak English, if you wanna be big star, If you wanna be star like world star, not only in Russia, then you have to learn English, this is very important,” he said.

So he ensured that the likes of Islam, Usman, and Umar Nurmagomedov all learned the Queen’s tongue, and it worked. Not only do all three of his fighters speak English, but they are fluent in it, and it has helped them grow an international following.