Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira was infamously accused of employing spiritual warfare and black magic by Jiri Prochazka before their UFC 303 rematch. The Czech Samurai felt that the champ called upon spirits to protect him during fights. While even Prochazka has admitted that the comments were unsuited to the occasion, these allegations made a comeback in the past few days.

#1 ranked Magomed Ankalaev took to social media and called out ‘Poatan’ and took a shot at his alleged shamanic warfare. “Focus on MMA, voodoo is not gonna help you, my son,” Ankalaev wrote before going on to promise that he would ‘punish’ the Brazilian. For context, the Dagestani is angling for a fight with Pereira at UFC 310 after the original main event had to be shelved.

Over the past few days, ‘Russian Terror’ has publicly stated he will accept a short-notice bout against ‘Poatan’ even as the champ’s team has told Ariel Helwani that Pereira will probably not accept. The two-division champ is in his native Brazil and has been posting pictures of him in traditional tribal Pataxo garb. This is specifically what Ankalaev was probably talking about when he wrote his ‘voodoo’ tweet.

But Alex Pereira seems unbothered and defiant by Ankalaev’s comments. The champ took to Instagram to post another picture of him in full tribal garb along with a caption seemingly aimed at Ankalaev. “It’s like this for the next fights! POATAN PATAXO, FLAME 🔥” Pereira wrote. However, it seems extremely unlikely that he will be headlining UFC 310.

Alex Pereira seemingly confirms his unavailability for UFC 310

After welterweight champion Belal Muhammad pulled out of his UFC 310 clash against Shavkat Rakhmonov, Alex Pereira had a very interesting reaction. The Brazilian posted a telephone emoji on social media, indicating he might be open to saving the card as he has done multiple times this year.

However, serious doubts were cast on this after MMA journalist Ariel Helwani revealed that ‘Poatan’s camp had told him that Pereira would not fight again this year. This has now been confirmed by the man himself as the Brazilian juggernaut revealed in a recent interview that he was still dealing with a lingering injury from his last fight.

“That fourth round [at UFC 307], I was throwing jabs and hurting my hand. I swear. I was thinking, ‘My hand must be broken.’ It still hurts. Not all the time, no, but if I squeeze here, it hurts,” Pereira said in a recent appearance on the Podpah podcast. What do you think about Alex Pereira’s defiant social media post?