Alex Pereira Challenges Cyril Gane to Immediate Rematch: ‘He Wouldn't Survive'

It's been four days since Alex Pereira suffered a TKO loss to Cyril Gane in his heavyweight debut at UFC Freedom 250, but he's not letting it go.

Pereira has spent the past few days ripping into Gane for hitting him with illegal elbows that led to his victory and referee Herb Dean for allowing the elbows to count, and now he's challenging Gane to a rematch.

During an appearance on the "Ariel Helwani Show" on Wednesday, Pereira made it clear he's already asked the UFC for another crack at Gane, and he wants a fair fight.

Pereira also iterated the rematch would likely go his way because Gane almost "didn't survive" their first fight after running out of steam midway through Round 2. He's confident Gane would have trouble lasting in a rematch as well.

"Everything was fine, and Ciryl, the way that he was gassing after the fight was over - if I had the chance to survive…the end of the second round, Ciryl does not survive the fight because he does not have heart," Pereira said.

"You could see in his eyes. I got robbed in that moment. Ciryl was lying down [after the fight] because he was dead tired. That’s why he really had to hit me with those [potentially illegal] shots so he could handle that."

If Pereira gets his rematch, it's almost certain Dean won't be refereeing that fight. The 38-year-old Brazilian is on record that he doesn't ever want Dean, who he told before his Freedom 250 fight with Gane to watch for illegal strikes, to referee any of his fights in the future.

"[I told Dean before the fight] this guy has a history of shots to the back of the head, so please pay attention to those during the fight," Pereira stated. "Ciryl Gane, for example, when he fights, he has a record - multiple times, he comes out [and cheats] like a strategy: OK, you take a shot, you drop, he follows up with those illegal shots.

"It makes me more upset that after we spoke with him, he brought [referee] Mike Beltran over and said, ‘Just so you understand, the back of the head is here.' So it seemed like he absorbed the information. Then, the next day, seeing everything that he did, knowing that we brought it to his attention, he did not do his job."

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 2:02 PM.