Fair enough points. It's also a very good way to look into it.
Focusing more on whether he was injured and sick or that whether those were excuses, I think the injury stuff not coming from Alex is telling.
Alex didn't comment on it after the fight, nor in the press conference like many fighters do (Umar Nurmagomedov and Merab, for example. Islam Makhachev too, saying the gap between cutting weight until the fight wad too small in Australia, citing as one of the reasons he couldn't do better vs Volkanovski 1 ... Gustafsson saying, after the 2nd JJ fight, that a knee he gets form JJ in the first round, which Gus said was blow and had the fight stopped for less than a minute, made him fight way worse than ideally, ironically finishing the thinking with a "but it is what it is". Or JJ said he didn't train for Gus 1 hence the fight was that close.
What could be a "coping" stuff from Alex was him saying he felt he won the fight... Tbf tho, nor only does he have a point, as the fight was close, but he also has the right to voice his opinion. It's not like he was saying he was robbed, that the judges shouldn't judge again, that he felt wronged... Like Reyes acted, for example. Alex saying he felt he had won the fight, all while never bringing a performance - compromising physical condition, would actually show more like the opposite to the fans, and to Ankalaev... That he was there to win. In fact, DC, Chael etc were already almost making excuses for Alex if Alex lost when Alex traveled to Australia to coach Sean, with both DC and Chael "estimating" how many hours from a 3 weeks training that would mean that Alex was missing the training. If he could hop on that trian he could easily do that, saying "well, it's not an ideal preparation, but it's inevitable to me, being a superstar, worrying for my sister and training her for karate, Sean also was in my last camp, so I need to do the same... Alex actually got kinda bothered by ppl suggesting he wasn't training as usually, by saying the difference is that every place that he is, it is shown to the media now, so it's just a false perception, saying he was as ready as ever and that if he loses, it won't be because he didn't do his best in the camping, he said he was at his best. I think Joe Rogan bringing it and then media outlets supporting it instead of Alex ever talking about it is telling that it was likely true.
And honestly, I even wonder if Alex cared about it to the point of acting like that "I won!!"... Ofc he was sad to lose, of course he really wanted to win. But I think he is also one of the best fighters ever who best deals in situations like losing. His intense rivalry vs Izzy, the fact he was KO'd and then had Izzy throwing a slammer first a lá Ngannou when Alex was out cold... Then Alex's kids in the crowd crying, Izzy then pointing directly at Alex's kids and pretending to fall just like Alex moments before. With Izzy then saying he was teaching Alex's son a lesson since when Alex won the second kickboxing fight vs Izzy, Alex's son imitated the way Izzy fell when KO'd. The boy was a little kid by then. That was way more humiliating to Alex, the defeat, the thing with his son crying. When he was leaving the arena he even took his son, hugged him. As he did when he lost to Ankalaev and his son was crying...
Alex moved on from that, and got closer and made peaces with Izzy... He'd even troll Izzy when meeting Izzy sometimes like friends lol. When Ankalaev wrote the no Vaseline to Alex, Alex posted a reaction to the comment showing himself in the barbershop, with the barbershop shaving his beard clean, even joking like no beards to protect from punches next!! ... Like, there seems to have no disrespect between Alex and Ankalaev either. No intense rivalry. Both also wrote to each other praising each others' skills... And in other provocations, it seemed way lighter hearted as well, like old rivals lol. I thought it could even turn into a huge hatred thing with the things "Ankalalev" said on Twitter... But Alex didn't took that to the heart. He saw how Ankalaev expressed himself differently and did know nothing about English. Alex had already said that those things may bother him at the moment but he comes to quickly realize too that it's also a business, that the fighters want and need to market in way ppl will care more to draw more attentions... He said generally the champion who is loved and is winning have the luxury to go out as the good guy, but that the provocation is part of the game, since each fighter there want the belt, want $ as well.
