Alex Pereira shuts down Tom Aspinall conspiracy theory: ‘He’s not gonna fake something like that’
· Yahoo Sports
Alex Pereira doesn’t buy into the conspiracy theory going around that Tom Aspinall is faking his eye injury.
That theory, which continues to exist despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, has the UFC heavyweight champion going through unnecessary medical procedures in order to … what? Not fight and lose out on earning millions? Anger UFC fans and mess up the heavyweight division? There’s not even a sane argument to be made for why Aspinall would be doing this. That’s how dumb the line of thinking is.
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Yet here we are, in a world where people are still suggesting Aspinall’s eye injuries from a horrible double eye poke from Ciryl Gane are overblown.
Alex Pereira doesn’t buy into that stuff.
Alex Pereira has come to Tom Aspinall’s defence amid claims he faked the injury in his championship fight at UFC 321.
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) February 19, 2026
Pereira admitted he was shocked to see Aspinall’s eyes after surgery and insisted no fighter would fake something like that. “I don’t mess around with health. I… pic.twitter.com/bntb18DDcQ
“[Some] didn’t believe him, others just trashed him,” Pereira said in a video with Valter Walker (via Red Corner MMA). “Look, I don’t mess around with health, man. I see it, like, this guy’s a fighter, he’s not gonna fake something like that.”
“But the guy is back now after surgery. I saw the photo that he posted. Man, his eye was all red. It even scared me a bit. The eye is really delicate, you know?”
Uncrowned’s Petesy Carroll was with Aspinall for the latest treatment and reports Tom still can’t train or even drive his car. He’s got a big black spot in the middle of his vision and has to turn his whole body to see things on the periphery.
The whole situation is looking so bad that there’s another conspiracy theory going around: that Alex Pereira could be granted an interim heavyweight title shot while Tom Aspinall is on the sidelines recovering.
“We are talking about some things,” Pereira revealed. “My next fight, we’ve already started conversations. It took a little while, but it’s very close to something being announced.”