Alex Pereira wasn’t at full fitness in his light heavyweight title defeat to Magomed Ankalaev earlier this month, according to UFC commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan.

Pereira surrendered his 205-pound world title in a unanimous decision loss to the Russian light heavyweight in what was just his second UFC defeat since entering the organisation in November 2021. The loss brought to an end a run of five successive wins, with the last four of those finishes in world title fights.

But in what was a somewhat muted performance by his standards, Pereira was largely unable to impose himself against the wily Ankalaev who found success in stifling the Brazilian on the feet.

And according to Rogan, two factors played into Pereira’s under-par performance.

“They say he fought with a broken hand and norovirus against Ankalaev,” Rogan said during a recent episode of his podcast, as reported by MMA Fighting.

“He fought with a broken toe before,” he added. “When he beat Jiri Prochazka, he had a f*cked up knee. Remember when he went and he tumbled at the end of the fight, that’s because his knee wouldn’t support him. He was basically fighting on one leg in the first fight. Then he gets surgery, I guess it’s probably meniscus, because he came back pretty quick.”

Pereira, it must be noted, has made no mention of illness or injury in the wake of his loss against Ankalaev. Norovirus is commonly known as the ‘winter vomiting bug’ and causes vomiting, diarrhoea and general stomach discomfort.

Despite reporting the rumour, Rogan also stated that Ankalaev’s performance in his win over Pereira should be commended.

“Ankalaev and Pereira, second round [Pereira] gets rocked and then he’s kind of not the same after that,” he said. “Much more defensive after that. I saw a good breakdown of Ankalaev’s standup against Pereira, it was very high level. Especially taking away the front hand, he’s doing this circular motion with his hand and taking away angles.”