ALEX PEREIRA seemingly had the love of his life by his side when he made UFC history late last year.
The Brazilian bruiser became the fastest man in UFC history to become a two-weight champion last November when he knocked out Jiri Prochazka in the second round of their Madison Square Garden melee.
GETTYUFC light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira was engaged to fellow Brazilian Merle Christine[/caption]
INSTAGRAM@ALEXPOATANPEREIRAThe couple seemed to be the picture of happiness after his recent title win[/caption]
INSTAGRAM@ALEXPOATANPEREIRABut the couple recently went their separate ways after Pereira claimed Christine lied to him about being married[/caption]
Just as he did when he knocked out Israel Adesanya to claim middleweight gold in the same building a year earlier, Pereira was cheered on by his then-fiancee Merle Christine.
The couple looked the picture of happiness in the immediate aftermath of his momentous achievement and in the weeks that followed.
But in January, it became apparent on social media that they’d gone their separate ways.
Eagle-eyed MMA fans spotted that ‘Poatan’ had unfollowed Christine on Instagram and had removed all traces of her from his page.
It didn’t take long for Pereira to get quizzed about the apparent break-up.
And he sensationally claimed he’d ditched his fellow Brazilian because she was MARRIED to someone else when they got together.
He told FulSend MMA: “Well, it’s a little hard to talk about this because, for me, I already deleted this person from my life.
“I would also like to ask my fans to also delete her from your life.
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INSTAGRAM@ALEXPOATANPEREIRAAlex Pereira has removed all traces of Merle Christine from his social media pages[/caption]
INSTAGRAM@ALEXPOATANPEREIRAChristine has denied Pereira’s claim when she was married when they got together[/caption]
“It was a person I believed, I put her in my house, with my family.
“After all, I found out, she was married.”
Merle was inundated with tags and messages from fight fans siding with Pereira after the knockout artist’s stunning claim, so much so that she had to make her account private.
But that didn’t stop her from issuing a scathing statement in response to her former lover’s accusation.
She wrote: “Lol. Hurt men are really trying to invent whatever.
“Obviously, I was married in the past, (Alex was too) but I got separated before I started a relationship with Alex.
“You guys are stupid to think I could move states having a husband? Lol.”
Christine then claimed it was her who decided to end things with Pereira and not the other way around as he’d made out.
She said: “I broke up with Alex BTW (by the way).
“And if I would start to speak about the reasons here it wouldn’t end good guys. Peace out.”
Fan favourite Pereira will bid to make the first defence of his light-heavyweight title early on Sunday morning in the main event of UFC 300 in Las Vegas.
His first title defence will pit him against former title challenger Jahamal Hill, who has made an incredible recovery from the horrific Achilles injury he suffered last July.
GETTYAlex Pereira defend his light-heavyweight title against Jamahal Hill at UFC 300[/caption]“}]]