Alex Pereira’s suffering during Joe Rogan’s highly criticized practice caught on cameras
Alex Pereira visibly distraught before Friday’s UFC 313 PPV official weigh-ins, giving life to Joe Rogan's lifelong critique on cuts.
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UFC 313 title fighter Alex Pereira caught amid drastic cut, during 'Embedded,' No. 6 (Source: IMAGO/X)
Alex Pereira defends his gold in the PPV feature headliner in just a few hours. He battles the No. 1-ranked light heavyweight top seed Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313. Ankalaev’s wrestling capacity has been a big what-if going in. However, a bigger cardinal element that gave “Poatan” troubles in the 11th hour was his weigh-in cut. It’s something the likes of Joe Rogan has been touching on again and again.
With another PPV offering came back the ceremonial “Embedded” fight week vlogs. The 6th and final – UFC 313 ‘Embedded,’ No. 6 saw fighters cutting for the weigh-ins. The nearby T-Mobile sees the highly anticipated 12-bout card go down. It saw a very emotional Alex Pereira going through a rugged weight-cut process.
The champion, as well as all 23 others, did make weight for Friday’s final official weigh-ins at the UFC Apex. However, Pereira went through a harrowing cut before that. His fight week cut was not easy either; Poatan maintains a natural hydration similar to UFC heavyweights. Hence, the cut down from about 224.8 lbs (102 kilos) is tremendous.
Pereira has had an intense rivalry with GLORY/UFC rival Israel Adesanya. The Kiwi-Nigerian won back his undisputed strap, knocking him out cold at UFC 287 PPV. Pereira’s corner recently revealed he had to cut down 40 pounds instead of the usual 20.
Hence, Poatan lacked fight endurance and tolerance. Joe Rogan has often critiqued the framework of cutting so severely, beyond or under the natural hydration. It remains to be seen if that will affect his output at UFC 313.
Joe Rogan once slammed Alex Pereira’s cutting massive amounts of weight cut as ‘sanctioned cheating’
When “Poatan” was a but a newly-crowned 185-pound champion, he towered over Glover Teixeira. For reference, Teixeira happened to be a former 205-pound champ. When facing Adesanya the first time in UFC, Alex Pereira’s socials (@alexpoatanpereira on IG) had his fight day weight at 95.6 kilos (i.e., 211.4 pounds)! That’s what fighters rehydrate to in the middleweight division.
The UFC 313 headliner star has been doing those drastic drops and rises for a while now. The UFC 205-pound king still has to make up for a 20-pound or more deficit on each cut! Joe Rogan was not angry that fighters would squeeze into other divisions like such. But rather that they’d choose to make such drastic drops at risk to their health.
He could have been, yeah, …He certainly gets above that between fights. And he has a hard time making 185. It’s a bullsh*t thing — It’s basically sanctioned cheating. It really is. But, everybody does it…He’s so big for the weight class, which really wears you out, that weight cut. And with wrestling, he’s gonna have issues. Because he’s not a grappler, that’s not his forte.
Joe Rogan on the ‘JRE’ Show #1900 – Steve-O – PowerfulJRE (@joerogan)
With three fights in 10 months, Adesanya took a time out, despite UFC CEO Dana White being ready for a rematch. Joe Rogan billed the big weight cuts would leave Pereira hollow, and it did. When Izzy did return, he was the better man for it. UFC fans have also seen lightweight Charles Oliveira go through similar hurdles and fiascos many times during cuts. As such, it remains a much-needed evil.
Related: Joe Rogan reveals Alex Pereira’s ‘Ungodly’ power stunned 20-year veteran referee
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