Alex Pereira and Artem Vakhitov, who split their two GLORY title fights, are now considering a trilogy match under MMA rules, with Pereira advising Vakhitov to be cautious of those encouraging the fight.
Alex Pereira and Artem Vakhitov split their two-fight series in GLORY title fights at one apiece. The Brazilian then left kickboxing to focus full-time on MMA.
Now, “Poatan” seems surprised by Vakhitov’s recent comments. In a recent interview, Vakhitov told MMA Fighting that Pereira “is a superstar and I am happy for him.”
But there’s more. Vakhitov also said he’s absolutely down to meet Pereira again, this time under MMA rules. Now that Vakhitov is focused on building his own MMA career, he’s ready for the challenge.
Vakhitov added that many of Pereira’s recent opponents have been too intimidated by the UFC light heavyweight champion. They’re “already defeated before the fight starts,” he claims.
“His biggest weakness is that he is all attack, he has no defense,” Vakhitov said of Pereira. “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,” Vakhitov continued. “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,” Vakhitov added. They aren’t confident against him and think he’s unbeatable.
“But I have beaten him before in pure striking competition,” Vakhitov asserted confidently. “I am sure I’ll do it again if we can get our trilogy match in the UFC.”
Pereira recently knocked out Jiri Prochazka for the second time to successfully defend his title at UFC 303. He responded to the Russian striker on Instagram, offering some advice.
“Hey brother, be careful with the people that are giving you this idea,” Pereira wrote in Portuguese. He warned that those advising Vakhitov had tried similar tactics with him.
“I didn’t do it because I’m not stupid LOL,” Pereira added humorously. He claimed GLORY awarded Vakhitov the win in 2021 because they knew it would be his last fight there and didn’t want him leaving 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,” Pereira speculated. He suggested reaching out to his manager Jorge Guimarães for help.
Pereira became an undisputed two-division champion in GLORY in January 2021 by winning a split decision over Vakhitov. They fought again eight months later; by then, “Poatan” was expected to join the UFC soon after.
Vakhitov won back his belt via majority decision in their rematch. Two months later, Pereira made his UFC debut with a second-round knockout over Andreas Michailidis at Madison Square Garden.