Imagine waking up and finding out Alex Pereira is retiring! That would unsettle any MMA fan alive right now. Yet, that’s what happened a few hours ago. The former light heavyweight champion’s X account posted a cryptic message hinting at retirement that left everyone scratching their heads. And just as the fandom was contemplating the unthinkable, Pereira cleared the air and set the record straight. But after the emotional rollercoaster that the fans went through, all was not forgiven, and they suspect Dana White may have done something behind the scenes!

According to the post on X, the former light heavyweight champion was a little upset with the UFC over. No specifics were available but it was evident that the relationship between Pereira and the UFC was souring. The tweet read, “I always answered the UFC’s calls, but if they want to play with me, we can do that. I’ve never spoken poorly of the UFC but with what I’ve just heard I’m disheartened. I’ve already had thoughts of not fighting anymore, and after what was just relayed to me this may be the start.” 

After news of the controversial tweet did the rounds on social media, ‘Poatan’ had to personally step in to clear the air. The explanation? Quite simple, honestly… He was hacked. In the video. Pereira said, “Well, everyone, I’ve received a ton of messages, getting messages from everyone who saw a post from my Twitter. I didn’t even know about it. I was hacked. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. You guys see, but  I was hacked and I’ll resolve it. I don’t even know what’s going on. I have a great relationship with UFC. People like to do bad things. That’s that. Chama!” This meant the strong words against Dana White and Co. weren’t actually his own.

With this incident, Pereira joined the growing list of UFC stars whose social media profiles have been hacked. In 2024, Dustin Poirier’s hacked X profile promoted a cryptocurrency scam. Before that, we saw Adrian Yanez’s IG account hacked to promote a fake PlayStation 5 giveaway. Even Aljamain Sterling unknowingly clicked on a phishing link in 2022 and sent multitudes of scam messages to his fans.

It is also worth noting that Pereira is set to attend the UFC 315 PPV event in Canada and will be available to fans who have the VIP pass. So, it’s unlikely that his relationship with the UFC is under any type of strain. But the fans had reasons to suspect more! 

Home of Fight shared Pereira’s explanation on their Instagram profile. Instead of breathing a sigh of relief, the entire fighting realm swooped down to the comments section and seemed to target the UFC CEO.

Fans don’t buy Alex Pereira’s ‘hacked’ explanation, suspects Dana White instead

According to some fans, this is a negotiation tactic in play. One of the fans reflected on this and wrote, “Dana’s behind the camera for sure.” Another comment read, “Dana and Hunter are holding two 12 gauge shotguns to his face out of the camera frame.” Some others believed Alex Pereira’s stunt secured him a bag – “I wonder how much this costs Dana 😅🤔.” Another like-minded fan added, “cap dana slid him a bag to delete his comments.” 

Well, most fight fans weren’t ready to believe Pereira’s hacked story. The reason? Similar things have already happened before – Royce Gracie blamed a hacked account when his Twitter account attacked Shane Carwin; Diego Sanchez put the blame on hackers after his Twitter account posted a series of bizarre tweets. Weighing in on this, one of the fans wrote, “The good ol’ my acc got hacked seems to always work for them 😂😂.” Another fan tackled the Brazilian star and commented, “He’s like just kidding they gave me a good deal I was hacked🤣.” 

Nevertheless, there were a few fans who were convinced that Pereira’s account was hacked. And the reason pointed to the post being in English. One fan wrote, “Well I know he doesn’t type in English so it definitely wasn’t him 🤣.”

The risk of getting hacked is quite real. Remember in January 2025, when UFC’s IG handle tried to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency scams? Yes, the exact same ones that were deleted as soon as the UFC regained control. But for now, fans can rest easy knowing Alex Pereira is not going anywhere, right? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.