In the eyes of champion Alex
Pereira, Khamzat
Chimaev is no Ricardo
Arona.
“Poatan” made history in November by becoming the first fighter in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history to win
titles in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.
The former 185-pound king—who went 1-1 with a knockout victory and
defeat to Israel
Adesanya in 2022 and 2023—moved up in weight to take on former
champ Jan
Blachowicz in July. The triumph put Pereira in contention for
205-pound gold, and he claimed it by vanquishing Jiri
Prochazka in the second round at UFC 295.
After picking up the strap, the 9-2 former kickboxer from Sao
Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, had plenty of men calling his
name as potential suitors for his first defense. Among those was
Chimaev, who recently experienced high-level success at
middleweight by topping former welterweight kingpin Kamaru
Usman on the scorecards. The Chechen, who frequently calls out
champions in various divisions, asked UFC head Dana White on
social
media on Monday if he could “finish” Pereira. The Brazilian has
since responded, in an interview
with journalist Laerte Viana on Thursday.
“When I beat Adesanya in a war and conquered the middleweight belt,
he challenged me for the belt,” Pereira explained. “I told my
manager to tell [the] UFC, that if he really wanted to fight me, we
could do that [at] light heavyweight, and he ran.”
Pereira continued, “If his goal was really face me, the opportunity
was given, but when he didn’t accept, I could understand that his
goal was get a shortcut to the title, [and] not [to specifically]
face me. Now that I have the light heavyweight [title], after
defeating Blachowicz and Jiri in two wars, he decides to challenge
me in [the] light heavyweight category? It’s pretty clear that this
guy loves surfing other people’s waves.”