Alex Pereira needed 80 seconds to get revenge to regain the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in Las Vegas last Saturday.
“Poatan” told reporters at a postwar UFC 320 press conference at T-Mobile Arena. He said he limped out of the octagon due to injuries while attacking Ankaraev.
“That’s my feet,” Pereira said. “I’m sure it’s broken.”
Pereira put Ankaraev early on in pressure and landed a brutal right hand that hurts Ankaraev after attacking his leg. The Russian fighter is about to get a “Poatan,” but ends up eating elbows and punches until Judge Herb Dean mercilessly finishes the match.
“There was a really good strategy that worked for (January) for Brakovic (against Ankaraev),” Pereira said. “The inside calf kick was working. I threw some of them and he switched stances and I think I was in the wrong range. And I threw another kick into his lead leg and it landed at the tip of my foot. I think it’s broken.”
“Poatan” also broke his toe when knocking out Jahamal Hill in April 2024, so this is not the first time Pereira has broken his bones in victory. Despite his injuries in the UFC 300, he returned to the headlines of UFC 303 on the other side of Jiri Prochazuka in June.
It is still unclear what level of Pereira’s injury and if surgery is required, but the light heavyweight champion was targeting a return to action in June 2026, competing in a historic UFC event at the White House.