Michael Bisping thinks it’s only a matter of time earlier than new UFC signee Artem Vakhitov is difficult Alex Pereira for the sunshine heavyweight title.
Vakhitov earned a contract with the UFC following an enormous first-round knockout in opposition to Islem Masraf on Tuesday’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Collection.
Earlier than making the transfer to MMA final yr, Vakhitov was a former GLORY Kickboxing champion and simply so occurs to be the final man to have crushed Pereira within the sport earlier than ‘Poatan’ moved onto blended martial arts.
If the story sounds acquainted, don’t be stunned. Pereira fought two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya below the GLORY banner twice and brutally KO’d the ‘Stylebender’ of their second encounter. Adesanya moved on to MMA months later.
With historical past seemingly repeating itself, Bisping thinks it’s only a matter of time earlier than Vakhitov works his approach up the ranks and challenges Pereira for UFC gold.
“ I feel he might do it, I feel he’s obtained the potential” Bisping mentioned on his YouTube channel. “He’s started working on the takedown protection. he’s obtained to get used to the little gloves. he’s obtained to get used to folks with offbeat rhythms as a result of MMA strikers are a bit completely different to polished kickboxers but when he can do this.
“If he can do the work and apply himself, I feel he might have a really vivid future and we might see that combat sooner or later down the road.”
Bisping sees the UFC pushing Artem Vakhitov the identical approach they pushed alex pereira
Like they did with Pereira, Bisping expects the UFC to push Vakhitov quick. Poatan’ infamously earned his first title alternative after simply three fights contained in the Octagon.
If Vakhitov can string collectively just a few spectacular wins, it’s protected to imagine that the promotion will try to wedge him into the title image and capitalize on the built-in story between the 2 heavy hitters.
“It’s going to be attention-grabbing to see who they match him up with first,” Bisping continued. “But when he goes on, let’s say, a four-or five-fight streak, the place he goes out and he knocks folks out, then after all there’s an enormous combat on our arms, and I’m positive Alex Pereira the entire time goes to be keen him on as a result of he desires to get him again. He desires to earn a living.”
