Alex Pereira’s coaches believe he defeated Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313

UFC star Alex Pereira’s coaches are of the belief that he should’ve had his hand raised against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313.

Last weekend at UFC 313, Alex Pereira fell to a defeat at the hands of Magomed Ankalaev. It was a tight fight but in the end, it was Ankalaev who managed to walk out of Las Vegas with the UFC light heavyweight championship.

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Ever since then, many have debated over the result – with the majority of fans, pundits and fellow fighters believing that Ankalaev won.

However, as per Pereira’s coaches Glover Teixeira and Plinio Cruz, they aren’t as convinced.

Pereira’s coaches comment on loss

“We had this defeat, but in my opinion he won,” Teixeira said. “He lost on points, so now we go back to the drawing board and adjust a few things, train hard and go back and get this rematch and make history. Poatan has made history before, and he will make history again. He’s a great warrior and I’m very proud of him.”

“Life is made of ups and downs, and those ups and downs are what make us who we are on this journey to our goal,” Cruz said. “We’ll come back stronger, regroup as a team. The vibe was great this week. We have no excuses. ‘Poatan’ was fine, and I think he won the fight. This is a stumble, not a fall, and it will only make him stronger, our team stronger. Humans evolve more in times of adversity. Rivalries make us grow.

“It went (Ankalaev’s) way this time, so we’ll train more, study more, get better to deliver you a better version of ‘Poatan’ – more mean. What this guy’s done was make it worse for him because now he’ll fight ‘Poatan 2.0.’ It’s happened to ‘Poatan’ before. It’s not the first time, and a true champion is the one that stumbles but continues moving forward and reconquers it. ‘Poatan’ will reconquer the belt in the rematch. (He’ll be) a more mean version, and our team will be on a level that is higher than it already is.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting