‘Nobody Is 100%’: Joe Rogan’s Injury Claims on Alex Pereira Dismissed as Magomed Ankalaev Gives Rematch Ultimatum

Joe Rogan’s comments about Alex Pereira’s health before defending his light heavyweight title at UFC 313 have sparked a fiery debate, but Magomed Ankalaev isn’t having any of it.

During an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the UFC commentator claimed that Pereira fought with a broken hand and was also diagnosed with Norovirus before his title fight against Ankalaev. It should be noted that these claims were blatantly unsubstantiated and were first seen on some rather unreliable meme pages on Twitter.

Regardless, Pereira’s fighting style against Ankalaev seemed unusually subdued, which led to his speculations to begin with. And of course, with Rogan reiterating these talking points, the rumors escalated to becoming proper excuses for Pereira’s loss, forcing the champ Ankalaev to retaliate.

“When fighters step in the cage, nobody is 100%,” he wrote. “I was offered a rematch with him in August and I said yes, but if he is not ready I will fight whoever is next—it doesn’t matter”, the Dagestani champion added with disdain.

 

Fighters often push through injuries, but a compromised hand against a powerhouse like Ankalaev? That’s a dangerous gamble.

Besides, if Pereira’s history in the UFC is to be taken into consideration, the last time he lost a fight before UFC 313, was against Israel Adesanya at UFC 287 in April 2023 in defense of his middleweight title.

Pereira would then ditch the division and move on to greener pastures at the 205 lbs division.

That said, the chances of him making a similar change would be unlikely considering he can’t fight for the title at heavyweight he had originally wanted to. It would also be unwise to try to take on a series of fights in a division stacked with fighters far more well-adapted at exerting pressure than Ankalaev.

So what does Pereira do? Does he take the August date? Or wait and hope for someone to take the title off of Ankalaev and then give UFC gold another shot at 205 lbs?

Well, his former opponent, ex-champion Jamahal Hill believes it’s the latter.

Hill predicts rematch victory for Pereira

Hill, who previously fought Pereira at UFC 300 and suffered a knockout loss pointed out that Anlalaev had executed his plan to perfection at UFC 313.

“I think he did exactly what I thought he was going to do. The fight mostly played out how I imagined, except that I expected Pereira to be more aggressive,” Hill said.

However, he did admit being somewhat surprised by Pereira’s lack of urgency. The former champion also shared his unofficial scorecard, saying he had the fight at 4-1 in Ankalaev’s favor, with Pereira winning the first round before losing control in the later rounds.

That said, looking ahead, ‘Sweet Dreams’ believes Pereira is more than capable of making the necessary adjustments for a potential rematch.

“He absolutely can win if he makes the right changes,” Hill explained. “He needs to be locked into training so his conditioning is on point—he can’t afford to gas out. He also has to increase his output, especially with his kicks. If he works on volume and endurance, he has a real shot”, the American elaborated.

In the meantime, Pereira hasn’t said anything about a rematch at all. Perhaps, this time around, the Brazilian simply wants to let his ‘stone hands’ do all the talking.