UFC light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira doesn’t see much of a point in fighting Khamzat Chimaev.
‘Poatan’ is fresh off his return to the cage opposite Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 earlier this month. There, Alex Pereria scored a second-round knockout win over ‘Denisa’. In the process, the Brazilian became light-heavyweight champion, and quickly eyed a potential trilogy with Israel Adesanya.
However, he’s instead been getting challenged by Khamzat Chimaev. ‘Borz’ has been out of the cage since a unanimous decision win over Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 in October. While the Chechen hoped to get a title shot against Sean Strickland at middleweight, he’s instead targeting Alex Pereira at 205 pounds.
However, Alex Pereira doesn’t believe that fight makes a lot of sense. Speaking on his YouTube channel, the Brazilian was asked about Khamzat Chimaev’s recent callout. There, he admitted that they were in talks for a bout earlier this year, but it doesn’t make any sense for them to fight now.
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(via Zuffa LLC)
“So actually, everything started after the Adesanya fight when I became the middleweight champion,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel through an interpreter. “It was a war with Adesanya. I was injured after the fight, and Chimaev directly called me out, wanted to fight against me, take my belt, and whatever. I said, ‘OK, that’s fine. Let’s fight at light heavyweight.’ (h/t MMAJunkie)
He continued, “He denied. He didn’t want to fight me at light heavyweight and afterwards, now I’m the champ at light heavyweight, and he calls me out at light heavyweight. So, this only shows that these type of fighters are trying to run behind the hype and the fame of the champions, and it doesn’t make sense. Now I have to do what? Call him out at heavyweight or what? So, it doesn’t make sense.”
What do you make of these comments? Do you want to see Alex Pereira vs. Khamzat Chimaev?
