Alex Pereira and Artem Vakhitov cut up their two-fight sequence in GLORY title fights at one apiece earlier than the Brazilian departed kickboxing to focus full-time on MMA.
Now “Poatan” appears stunned to see Vakhitov’s latest feedback.
In a latest interview, Vakhitov instructed MMA Combating that Pereira “is a celebrity and I’m glad for him,” but in addition mentioned he’s completely down to fulfill Pereira once more, this time beneath MMA guidelines now that Vakhitov is concentrated on constructing his personal MMA profession. Vakhitov added that he believes a lot of Pereira’s latest opponents have been too intimidated by the UFC gentle heavyweight champion and are “already defeated earlier than the struggle begins.”
“His largest weak point is that he’s all assault, he has no protection,” Vakhitov mentioned of Pereira. “Due to his lack of protection, he’s open to taking a whole lot of punches to the top if he’s dealing with a talented striker. You noticed that in his second struggle with Adesanya. He received caught as a result of he leaves a whole lot of openings for individuals who know what they’re doing.
“These different guys haven’t completed nicely towards Alex as a result of their putting isn’t at a excessive sufficient degree. They aren’t assured towards him and so they suppose he’s unbeatable, so of their coronary heart they’re already defeated earlier than the struggle begins. However I’ve overwhelmed him earlier than in pure putting competitors, and I’m certain I’ll do it once more if we are able to get our trilogy match within the UFC.”
Pereira, who lately knocked out Jiri Prochazka a second time to efficiently defend his title at UFC 303, responded to the Russian striker on Instagram, giving Vakhitov recommendation.
“Hey brother, watch out with the individuals which are providing you with this concept,” Pereira wrote in Portuguese. “The identical individual that’s advising you to try this has tried the identical to me and I didn’t do as a result of I’m not silly LOL Everyone is aware of that after they gave you the win [in GLORY in 2021] it’s as a result of GLORY knew that that may be my final struggle within the group and so they didn’t need me to go away with the belt! So that you can expose your self like this, evidently you’re a bit misplaced and nearly actually doesn’t have a supervisor. That’s what I feel. It’s best to ship a message to ‘Joinha’ [Jorge Guimarães, Pereira’s manager] as a result of I feel he may help you. Chama.”
Pereira turned an undisputed two-division champion in GLORY in January 2021 when he received a cut up choice over Vakhitov. The 2 fought in a rematch eight months later. At that time, “Poatan” was already anticipated to ink a take care of the UFC, and Vakhitov received his belt again through majority choice. Pereira made his UFC debut two months later with a second-round knockout over Andreas Michailidis at Madison Sq. Backyard.
