UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira was quick to respond to recent comments made by his former Glory Kickboxing opponent Artyom Vakhitov.
Pereira made the most of another short notice opportunity last month with a win over Jiri Prochazka in the main event of UFC 303. After Conor McGregor withdrew from the card, Pereira and Prochazka geared up in the weeks leading up to it and stepped up to salvage one of the biggest events of the year.
Many are in awe of Pereira's success in mixed martial arts as he has risen to superstardom. In just a few fights, Pereira has established himself as one of the best fighters of all time and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC.
Pereira made a name for himself in kickboxing before switching to mixed martial arts. One of his biggest opponents during that time was Vahitov, who lost a majority decision to Pereira in the final bout of Glory Kickboxing in 2021.
Vahitov has his sights set on Pereira and believes he is the man who can dethrone him.
In a recent interview Mixed Martial ArtsVahitov analyzed Pereira's unprecedented success in MMA.
“His biggest weakness is that he's all attack and no defense,” Vakhitov said of Pereira. “He has no defense, so when he faces a skilled striker, he takes a lot of punches to the head. We saw that in his second fight with Adesanya. He gives a lot of openings to guys who know what he's doing, so he gets caught out…
“The reason other fighters couldn't beat Alex is because their striking wasn't high enough. They don't have confidence in Alex and think he's invincible, so in their minds they're defeated before the fight even starts. But I've beaten Alex before in a pure striking match and I'm sure I can do it again if a trilogy fight at UFC happens.”
