Alex Pereira, Who Fought With a Broken Toe, Has Thoughts on Conor McGregor

The UFC 303 main event was originally slated to be the long-awaited return of Conor McGregor stepping foot into the octagon for the first time in three years to face the popular and dangerous Michael Chandler. The card was quickly turned on its head when McGregor broke his toe, and the UFC was forced to scramble to put together a worthy new fight.

Who better to rise to the occasion on short notice than another two-division champion, Alex Pereira, who is hot off a headlining KO at UFC 300. Pereira will rematch Jiri Prochazka in what is arguably a better fight based on strictly skill sets only. In an interview with ESPN MMA, Pereira, who competed with a broken toe in his last fight, talked about not judging McGregor for pulling out of the fight, as he wouldn’t know how to react if he was in the Irishman’s financial situation.

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Alex Pereira Had a Nuanced Take on Conor McGregor’s Injury

The Brazilian fighter said he cannot judge ‘how bad it is’ for the Irishman

During the interview, Pereira said:

The reporter then prefaced a question about the toe by saying that he’s ‘not trying to get [Alex] to say anything controversial’ about McGregor because “Notorious” has been taking a lot of heat for pulling out of the fight from fighters like Chael Sonnen:

Another thought process for this whole scenario has been hit upon by Sonnen’s co-host and former two-division UFC champion, Daniel Cormier, who isn’t bashing McGregor for pulling out, but believes that the sport’s biggest star could be done with fighting altogether:

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Alex Pereira Compared to Conor McGregor

Both are double-champs and both have been a valuable resource to the organization

Pereira and McGregor’s plight to greatness will be forever encapsulated in MMA history for the speed at which they achieved said greatness is very comparable. In both of these great fighters’ first eight fights they had a record of 7-1. Both men lost to their rival (Israel Adesanya/ Nate Diaz), they also both hold a win over their rival and neither of them seem hellbent on making the massive trilogy happen.

It’s easy to compare their willingness to fight with an injury. It’s been documented how McGregor fought Max Holloway and Chandler Mendes with a severe ACL injury and Pereira fought at UFC 300 with broken toes. The biggest difference between the two champions is that McGregor earned his second belt two fights after Pereira earned his. This weekend we will see if the Brazilian champion can stay hot or will cool off a bit.