Michel Pereira, no relation to Alex, lost a unanimous decision to Shara Magomedov (29-28 across all three judges’ scorecards) in the co-main event of UFC Baku. He was competing on a one-fight contract that expired after the bout. It was his fourth defeat in his last five UFC appearances. The promotion opted not to offer a new deal.
The officiating during the fight is the specific issue. Referee Herb Dean warned Magomedov twice in the opening round for pulling Michel Pereira’s hair during grappling exchanges. Between rounds, Dean used a translator to inform Magomedov’s corner that another foul would result in a point deduction. Later in the fight, Magomedov appeared to poke Michel Pereira in the eye. Dean halted the action to allow recovery and issued another warning, but did not deduct a point. Had a single point been taken, the fight would have been scored a majority draw.
Alex Pereira, coming off his own TKO loss to Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 in the interim heavyweight title fight, has already been critical of Dean this cycle. He accused the referee of missing repeated back-of-head strikes during the finishing sequence against Gane. The Michel Pereira release, in his framing, is a second data point in the same pattern.
His statement on social media stayed measured about the UFC itself and pointed at the officiating specifically.
“They could have sent this guy earlier, and maybe it would have been acceptable, but paying such a high price because of a refereeing mistake is impossible to accept,” Pereira wrote. “The UFC has already done, and continues to do, everything I ask within the organization’s reach.”
The distinction is worth highlighting. Pereira is not framing the release as a promotion-side failing. He is framing it as a downstream consequence of a discretionary in-fight officiating call that produced the loss on the record.
“But it’s sad to see this and not be upset,” he continued. “Many athletes don’t say anything, but tomorrow it could be you going through this kind of situation, and there will be no point in sending me a message asking for help. It’s sad that not even the UFC has control over this, and because of that, our sport keeps being tarnished.”
Michel Pereira’s own response was substantially warmer. In a farewell message posted after the release, he wrote, “I have nothing but gratitude in my heart for the UFC. Everything I have and have achieved came through the UFC.” The 32-year-old exits the promotion with a 10-6 UFC record, 32-15 as a professional, seven post-fight performance bonuses, and three Fight of the Night awards, all built across an eight-fight winning streak between 2020 and 2024 that had defined the middle chapter of his career. He originally signed with the UFC in 2019.
The underlying regulatory question is familiar to anyone who has followed commission work over the past decade. Point deductions in MMA are discretionary. The Unified Rules give the referee authority to warn or deduct for fouls such as hair-pulling and eye-pokes, but the threshold for moving from warning to deduction is not codified in numeric terms. Two referees can watch the same sequence and reach different conclusions, and both can be defended within the letter of the rules. In Azerbaijan, where the Baku card was staged, oversight structures differ from those in North American commission states, adding another layer to any accountability discussion after the fact.
Overturned results in MMA remain rare and typically require evidence of a clear rules breach rather than a discretionary miss. Michel Pereira’s team has not publicly indicated whether it will pursue any formal complaint through the Azerbaijani athletic commission. He is now a free agent and can sign elsewhere immediately. PFL and the bare-knuckle boxing scene have both been cited by outside observers as plausible destinations, though nothing has been announced.
Alex Pereira, for his part, has confirmed he is staying at heavyweight for his own next fight. He is targeting a return in November, with Madison Square Garden mentioned as the likely destination. His comments on Dean are unlikely to be the last in this cycle. Henry Cejudo has since raised similar criticisms of the veteran official on his podcast with Kamaru Usman. Whether the collective pressure from ranked fighters produces any concrete review of officiating protocols by the promotion or the commissions remains to be seen.
For now, one referee’s discretionary call has produced two significant editorial storylines in the space of three weeks. The distinction Pereira is drawing is that the fighter paid the higher price. Whether the sport agrees with the framing is the conversation that started this week and does not appear to be over yet.
