Chael Sonnen Makes Bold Statement On Alex Pereira's UFC 291 Win

Sonnen has some thoughts on Pereira's recent victory.

Fernando Quiles Jr. | Aug 1, 2023

Chael Sonnen Makes Bold Statement On Alex Pereira's UFC 291 Win /

Former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen has a bold take on Alex Pereira getting past Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291.

Pereira made the move up to the light heavyweight division after suffering a knockout loss against Israel Adesanya back in April. Pereira lost the UFC Middleweight Championship, and took a fight against former light heavyweight titleholder Blachowicz.

The bout went the distance and two of the three Octagon-side judges scored the fight 29-28 in favor of "Poatan." After the fight, Blachowicz insisted that he was "robbed" of a win.

Alex Pereira throws a punch at Jan Blachowicz during their UFC 291 co-main event. — (via Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports)

Chael Sonnen took to his YouTube channel to weigh in on Pereira's split nod over Blachowicz. While "The American Gangster" isn't crying robbery, he does believe the judges got it wrong.

"I do miss the days where the judges know where we're at as an industry and then screw a guy over to serve that narrative," Sonnen said. "They're back, they were back on Saturday. There is no reasonable world where Alex Pereira won that fight. That's not Chael's opinion, that's math. He lost rounds one and three. He did not have a 10-8 in round two, and if he did he would've got what's known as a draw, which is not what he was given."

Regardless of opinion, Pereira has now put himself in prime position to challenge for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Jiří Procházka, the former titleholder who relinquished his gold due to injury, told Ariel Helwani on "The MMA Hour" that his shoulder feels at 100 percent and he wants to fight Pereira for the title.

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Published Aug 1, 2023

FERNANDO QUILES JR.

Fernando has over a decade of combat sports news writing experience. He currently covers MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling. Fernando joined MMA Knockout as the Lead Writer/Editor when it was founded in 2023.