Alex Pereira forced to swallow bitter pill as two ex-UFC champions disagree with UFC 313 "robbery" claims: "It's your job to get off the fence"

Alex Pereira has received considerable criticism for his performance in the wake of his title defeat against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313. 'Poatan' has now been forced to swallow another bitter pill, as two former UFC champions have assertively disagreed with the narrative that he was wronged on the judges' scorecards.

The UFC 313 headlining match on March 8 witnessed Pereira lose his UFC light heavyweight championship to Dagestan's Magomed Ankalaev via unanimous decision. Many believed that it was a closely contested fight, with some even arguing that the Brazilian was robbed of a win by the three judges.

On a recent edition of the Pound 4 Pound podcast, former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo discussed Alex Pereira's defeat.

Appearing to lambast the robbery narrative surrounding the judges' verdict, Cejudo suggested that he scored the fight four rounds to one, or perhaps three rounds to two, in favor of Ankalaev. 'Triple C' stated:

"This wasn't a robbery. This was all Magomed; maybe 4-1, or 3-2. I wanna say round one and maybe three to Pereira. But other than that, dude, to me just this was all Magomed Ankalaev."

Meanwhile, Usman alluded to Pereira's post-fight remarks, which saw the Brazilian imply that Ankalaev excessively stalled by holding him against the fence.

'The Nigerian Nightmare' signaled that it was Pereira's job to get off the fence rather than waiting for the referee to separate them. The ex-welterweight kingpin said:

"This could have definitely been a 4-1 decision. I'm not angry about the 3-2 decision for Ankalaev because I think in that fifth round, Alex Pereira did come out with a little bit more sense of urgency. Looked like he was trying to fight and actually go try to finish the fight. But Ankalaev would push him up against the fence and just kind of wear him down again. Hey, it's your job to get off the fence. If you're not doing that, then why would the ref save you?"

Check out Cejudo's and Usman's comments below:

Watch the podcast episode below (*comments about the Pereira-Ankalaev fight at 0:42-18:58):

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Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo's past predictions for Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev

After UFC 313, UFC boss Dana White has indicated that an immediate rematch between newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev and former two-division UFC champion Alex Pereira could be next.

Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo's past predictions about Pereira vs. Ankalaev saw them previously warn that Ankalaev's grappling could prove to be kickboxing great Pereira's kryptonite. However, over the past few months, both Usman and Cejudo went from favoring Ankalaev to picking Pereira to win their fight.

Furthermore, during a recent edition of their Pound 4 Pound podcast, they affirmed that Ankalaev's tendency of not adequately using his grappling skills and going back to his striking could hurt him.

They notably recounted how ex-light heavyweight kingpin Jan Blachowicz visibly hurt Ankalaev with kicks to the lead leg and opined that Pereira would similarly hurt the Dagestani fighter. Cejudo said:

"He [Ankalaev] does have hands, but he doesn't have that Alex Pereira power. And not just that, his lead leg is very deficient, bro."

Watch Usman's and Cejudo's pre-UFC 313 prediction below (25:23):