Alex Pereira has fired back at his old kickboxing rival Artem Vakhitov after he called for a trilogy fight between the two to take place in the UFC.
As we reported earlier today, Pereira beat Vakhitov by split decision in their first kickboxing match at Glory 77 in 2021, but later that year at Glory 78 there was a rematch between them in what would be the final fight of ‘Poatan’s’ time in that sport, and on that occasion it was Vakhitov who edged out a majority decision victory.
Several years later Vakhitov is now using his past history with Pereira to try to angle for a trilogy fight between them in the Octagon, but Pereira doesn’t appear to be willing to entertain the idea, and also suggested that there was more to Vakhitov’s win against him than meets the eye.
“Hey brother, be careful with the people that are giving you this idea,” Pereira responded to Vakhitov. “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 – Pereira’s manager] because I think he can help you. Chama.”
Pereira can’t be too mad at Vakhitov for calling him out though as it’s a very similar situation to the one that first brought ‘Poatan’ to the UFC, after he leveraged his two wins over Israel Adesanya in the Glory promotion to generate interest in a trilogy fight between them in the Octagon.
Pereira joined the UFC with a 3-1 record, but he didn’t get the title shot he was aiming for straight away. Instead ‘Poatan’ strung together three wins in a row, including KO’ing Sean Strickland, before finally earning that opportunity, so Vakhitov, who is currently 2-1 as an MMA fighter, should expect similar treatment if he is able to catch the UFC’s attention.
