Alex Pereira refuses to judge Conor McGregor for UFC 303 pullout due to pinky-toe injury: "I broke one before the fight, it was bad"

Alex Pereira knows a thing or two about fighting with a broken toe. For this reason, he has chosen not to criticize Conor McGregor's decision to withdraw from his UFC 303 welterweight headliner with Michael Chandler, after the Irishman fractured his pinky toe in the lead up to the fight.

The Brazilian said so in a recent sitdown with ESPN MMA, where he spoke about his upcoming UFC 303 light heavyweight title defense against former Jiří Procházka. He also touched on the injury that forced 'The Notorious' out of the original main event, saying:

"I cannot judge whether he fights or not, because honestly, he's on a point of his life where he secured himself on many different financial aspects. Maybe he was fighting on a much different scenario than I'm fighting. Maybe if I was fighting in the situation where he is in life right now, I don't know if I would do it too. So, I cannot judge how bad it is."

He added:

“It is hard to fight with a broken pinky [toe]. It is a risky decision, very risky decision to fight with a broken toe. I broke one before the fight, it was bad, in the fight I broke the other one. Maybe if it was the other one, I wouldn’t have been able to fight, so I cannot weigh that, but I made the right choice.”

Check out Alex Pereira talking about Conor McGregor's toe injury (8:29):

Pereira famously stepped into the UFC 300 main event with a broken toe, yet defended his light heavyweight belt nonetheless, knocking out Jamahal Hill in the process. He also suffered another toe injury during the fight. Even so, he has agreed to step in on just two weeks notice to save the UFC 303 headliner.

'Poaton' will take on a former foe in Procházka in what will be a rematch of their UFC 295 encounter, which he won via second-round TKO. Unfortunately, some decried the stoppage as early, so the Brazilian knockout artist will look to silence any of his lingering doubters this Saturday evening.

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Alex Pereira usually avoids speaking ill of other fighters

Alex Pereira isn't one to engage in trash talk, often conducting himself in a fairly respectful manner, even against opponents who typically trash talk others, like Israel Adesanya. Thus, it makes sense that he would not badmouth Conor McGregor. There is, however, someone 'Poatan' has lambasted.

"The only ones who speak bad about me are Anthony Smith types. Washed up vets who never amounted to anything, who are still fighting. They're in a really tight spot or nobody."

Check out Alex Pereira blasting Anthony Smith on his Youtube channel last year:

The light heavyweight king previously took aim at Anthony Smith for the latter's frequent digs at him, as 'Lionheart' has belittled Pereira as a fighter on various occasions, despite the Brazilian being a two-division champion and all-time great kickboxer.