"You can’t give excuses" - Alex Pereira reacts to Magomed Ankalaev reportedly carrying rib injury into UFC 320 rematch 

After losing his light heavyweight title rematch against Alex Pereira, Magomed Ankalaev and his team revealed that the now-former champion had suffered a rib injury in the lead-up to the fight. 'Poatan', however, is not having any of the excuses.

The Brazilian is no stranger to getting injured. He was reportedly suffering from norovirus and a broken hand during the pair's first fight at UFC 313. However, Ankalaev, trying to discredit his win, citing injury, doesn't seem to sit well with 'Poatan'.

During a recent Q&A ahead of UFC Rio, Pereira argued that most of the damage Anakalev suffered was from the fight itself:

"I can’t know, but if it was already injured, it hurt it even more [with the elbows]. You can’t give excuses. I had a thousand excuses to say, but waited to say when we were about to fight again. They’re already giving away [excuses] to maybe take away my merits, I don’t know." [H/t MMA Fighting]

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After criticisms of being too reactive in their first fight, Pereira pushed the pace from the get-go at UFC 320. It didn't take the former kickboxer long to find a perfect right hand that rocked his opponent, who scrambled for a takedown.

The 38-year-old quickly postured and ended up on top, before raining down vicious elbows, forcing the referee to call a stop to the contest at 1:20 seconds of the very first round.

Check out Alex Pereira's finish over Magomed Ankalaev below:

With the win, Pereira has now become a three-time UFC champion, having won the middleweight strap once and the light heavyweight title twice.

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Alex Pereira talks about his UFC 320 finish

Alex Pereira's finishing sequence over Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320 was not a random set of strikes. 'Poatan' decided to commit fully to ground and pound after sensing it was doing considerable damage to his opponent.

Once Ankalaev was on the ground, the newly minted light heavyweight champion rained down elbows, both to his head and to the midsection, leaving his opponent largely unable to defend himself.

Speaking about the finishing sequence during the Q&A, Pereira said:

"It was a great sensation. We train hard for that. We want to be in there and give our best, be the best. I landed a clean punch before the elbows, and he came, grabbing my legs. There was an opening, and my elbow landed clean. When I landed the first one and saw blood, I started hitting, and the referee stopped it. But I think it could have gone a little longer because I promised to slap his face, and I couldn’t do that."

Edited by Ujwal Jain