Is Alex Pereira Injured Before UFC 303? All About Broken Toes Setback of the UFC Champ

Alex Pereira had the entire community of combat sports worried as he took up the fight with Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303 on short notice. The main event was initially set for the return of Conor McGregor against Michael Chandler, following a three-year-long hiatus. However, an unfortunate injury in the Irishman’s toe led him to pull out of the fight. Thankfully, ‘Poatan’ agreed to save the event from collapsing. But what about the Brazilian fighter’s injuries?

Pereira has been troubled with injuries ever since he last fought Jamahall Hill at UFC 300 and successfully defended his light heavyweight championship belt for the second consecutive time. Despite his sweet victory, the world gasped as his injury was brought to light. Let’s take a look at the fighter’s injuries, today.

Alex Pereira dealing with multiple fractures after UFC 300

The man with hands of stone previously expressed his desire to fight at UFC 301. Surprisingly, he didn’t call for a light heavyweight bout, but for a heavyweight one instead. But the fight fans had their mind on the mixed martial artist’s injuries. 

Pereira declared that he had a couple of broken bones in two of his toes. One of the injuries occurred when he was training for UFC 300. He simply pushed through the injury and proved how dangerous he is with a victory by KO. But the second injury was inflicted during his fight with Hill. 

Talking to MMA Fighting, ‘Poatan’ revealed, “I was imagining the best-case scenario [when I called for a heavyweight fight at UFC 301], but I have two broken toes. Both feet are f***ed.” Despite his injury, Pereira believed that it was wiser to go up and defend his belt instead of holding up the light heavyweight division, in case his injuries took more time to heal.

Pereira seemed to think that the ideal scenario would be to fight in the heavyweight division at UFC 301, and let someone else take a chance at the LHW championship belt. The fighter questioned, “If it takes too long and I fight at heavyweight and there are injuries, when am I going to defend my belt?” Now, he’s going up against Prochazka after talking a lot about it. But the fight fans still wonder if he’s still injured.

Will Alex Pereira be fully fit at UFC 303?

With his impressive KO win over Hill and desire to go up to the HW division, Pereira was targeted by the heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, himself. But Magomed Ankalaev was the one that the fight fans wanted Pereira to go against. Ankalaev was also of the same mind and proposed to set the date for their fight for UFC 305 in Abu Dhabi, on 26th October. Unfortunately for the Russian, ‘Poatan’ wanted to fight early.

Pereira said, “I don’t want to fight at the end of the year. I want to fight sooner, so maybe that shows he won’t be ready.” While Pereira’s words reflected on Ankalaev not being ready to fight anytime before UFC 305, it also assured the fight fans that he would have recovered by the time he took the fight to Prochazka at UFC 303.

Alex Pereira has experience of fighting with an injury

After all, ‘Poatan’ has fought with injuries on multiple occasions and won. Reflecting on UFC 303, Dana White said that he got to know about Pereira’s broken toe after he entered the Octagon to fight Jamahal Hill. But that wasn’t the first time the Brazilian did so. A couple of years back, he was pitted against his longtime rival, Israel Adesanya, and finally won against him. But did you know that the man with hands of stone knocked ‘The Last Stylebender’ out while having an injury on his right hand?

In a conversation with ESPN, he revealed that he was suffering from torn ligaments in the middle finger of his right hand. Pereira said, “A lot of people talk nonsense and don’t know what was going on. I [tore] the ligaments. I think I can come back better for this next fight.” He declared that he couldn’t even grapple for a couple of weeks because of it. Even though he didn’t give it his all, he became the champion of the middleweight division. 

This shows how formidable the Brazilian can be inside the Octagon. Do you think he would be all okay by the time he fights Prochazka? Drop down to the comments section and let us know what you think.