UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is seemingly running out of options in his division.
Following the reclaiming of his light heavyweight title against Magomed Ankalaev last October, ‘Poatan’ revealed plans to maneuver as much as heavyweight in pursuit of a title in a 3rd weight class.
One in all the fundamental reasons for the Brazilian’s desire to maneuver up in weight again is due to lack of contenders at 205lbs, with him having already beaten several of the division’s highest ranked fighters.
Nevertheless, soon after Alex Pereira teased a possible move to heavyweight, the UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev revealed that he wants a fight against ‘Poatan’ at light heavyweight.
Pereira warned against fighting Chimaev despite it being the largest money fight
Despite being widely thought to be one of the exciting fighters in the game, Pereira has shown clear holes in his grappling defense game over time.
And that’s the reason he’s being severely warned against staying at light heavyweight to defend his title against Chimaev, especially by ‘Borz’s’ longtime coach, Alan ‘Finfou’ Nascimento.
“If I have a look at the situation from Khamzat’s side, Khamzat vs Pereira could be the fight that might sell probably the most and Khamzat could be fighting for one more belt, it’s great for him,” Nascimento told MMA Today.
“He’s not the sort of guy that’s gonna give you excuses if things don’t go his way. But Khamzat could be fighting much more relaxed if he moved up.
“If I were Pereira, I’d next accept that fight because let’s be honest, Khamzat could be (the largest) challenge. Pereira would must defend. Pereira already has two belts now he has the chance to perform something nobody has ever done before within the history of the UFC.
“If I were Pereira I’d say, ‘Khamzat, I actually have a much bigger goal – I actually have to go for the third belt.’ But could that fight occur? Yes.”
With the present UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall out injured for the foreseeable future, rumors proceed to go around that the promotion is considering introducing an interim title.
And with that, the favored frontrunners to compete for the title are Pereira and up to date title challenger, Ciryl Gane.
Chimaev’s fight style would translate well to any weight class
Ever since he joined the premier promotion, ‘Borz’ was highlighted as a possible future three-weight world champion.
Having begun his tenure at 170lbs, the Chechen sensibly opted to maneuver as much as middleweight with the load cut to welterweight being far too taxing on his body.
Despite that, together with his extremely dominant grappling style, his skills would likely translate extremely well to any weight class, marking him as a direct threat to any belt.