Michel Pereira's wife got death threats after he wore Israeli flag in UFC fight (Video)

Michel Pereira made a statement on Saturday night when the newly-minted middleweight secured a 1:06 TKO win over Andre Petrovski at UFC Vegas 81. Unfortunately, it's not his performance that's making headlines this week, but his wearing of the Israeli flag in the Octagon.

After the fight Pereira told FanSided MMA his reasons for wearing the flag amid the war between Israel and Palestine.

"The decision was because of the war that is happening in Israel. I have a lot of friends there, and I saw a lot videos that broke my heart... I saw a little kid," he said. "The kid was sleeping then when the kid woke up, he was starving. Now I have a baby, I have a kid at home, so when I saw the video, it broke my heart so I decided to have the flag to support Israel."

Michel Pereira says if anyone comes to his home 'they will pay' after death threats

Now, days later he says his wife has gotten death threats because of the support he showed on Saturday night.

"I didn't see much, but my wife received a lot of messages, a lot of threatening messages, to kill us. So I didn't see it, but I'm going to let everyone know that if something happens, if someone comes to my house, they will pay."

The war is a controversial one with many people divided on which side is right and wrong. But a cliff notes of what happened is that Hamas, a terrorist group fired rockets in Israel on Oct. 7, a Jewish holiday. In retaliation Israel is waging war in Gaza, which homes many innocent Palestinians. Though sides have been drawn it's clear that rational people want peace, though that may be hard to come by for the time being.