Alex
Pereira recently shut down a callout from Artem
Vakhitov, who was the last man to beat him in kickboxing.
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Pereira defeated Vakhitov via split decision in their first
encounter at Glory 77 in January 202, to win the light heavyweight
title. Vakhitov exacted revenge in their rematch later that year,
defeating Pereira via majority decision to win back the title at
Glory 78.
Pereira had finalized his
Ultimate Fighting Championship signing a day before that fight,
marking the end of his kickboxing career. “Poatan” has gone on to
become a two-division champ, earning four victories in title bouts
within less than three years in the promotion.
Meanwhile, Vakhitov competed in one muay thai bout after his win
over Pereira before switching to MMA, where he is currently 2-1.
Vakhitov is motivated by the idea of a potential trilogy clash
against Pereira in MMA.
The Russian believes Pereira has room for improvement in his
striking defense which was exposed in the Brazilian’s lone UFC loss
against Israel
Adesanya last year. According to Vakhitov, not only were
Pereira’s fallen opponents lesser skilled than him, they but were
also mentally defeated even before the fight began.
“MMA was always interesting for me anyway, but obviously I am very
motivated by the prospect of getting that trilogy match with
Pereira… His biggest weakness is that he is all attack, he has no
defense,” Vakhitov told MMAFighting.com. “Because of his lack of
defense, he is open to taking a lot of punches to the head if he’s
facing a skilled striker. You saw that in his second fight with
Adesanya. He got caught because he leaves a lot of openings for
people who know what they are doing.
“These other guys haven’t done well against Alex because their
striking isn’t at a high enough level. They aren’t confident
against him and they think he’s unbeatable, so in their heart they
are already defeated before the fight starts. But I have beaten him
before in pure striking competition, and I am sure I’ll do it again
if we can get our trilogy match in the UFC.”
Pereira issued a warning via Instagram in response to
Vakhitov’s comments. The Brazilian argued that his loss against
Vakhitov was unfairly dealt to him because he was leaving the
promotion. Pereira then hinted that whoever influenced Vakhitov’s
recent comments had given “Poatan” similar advice, which he
ignored. Pereira further advised the Russian to sign with his
manager, Jorge Guimaraes.
“Hey brother, be careful with the people that are giving you this
idea,” Pereira said. “The same person that is advising you that has
tried the same to me and I didn’t do because I’m not stupid.
Everybody knows that when they gave you the win it’s because Glory
knew that that would be my last fight in the organization and they
didn’t want me to leave with the belt! For you to expose yourself
like this, it seems that you’re a bit lost and almost certainly
don’t have a manager. That’s what I think. You should send a
message to Joinha [Jorge Guimaraes] because I think he can help
you. Chama.”