UFC welterweight contender Khamzat Chimaev has responded to Alex Pereira.
‘Borz’ has been out of the octagon since a submission win over Kevin Holland in September. However, Chimaev wasn’t originally supposed to face ‘Trail Blazer’ at UFC 279. Originally, he was supposed to face Nate Diaz. However, the fight was scrapped on weigh-in day, as the Chechen badly missed weight.
Following the event, the UFC and Dana White indicated that a move up to 185 pounds was likely. Although they’ve since targeted Chimaev to face Colby Covington, the Chechen has another fight in mind. Over the last few weeks, the welterweight has called for a clash with Alex Pereira.
For his part, the Brazilian has stated he was down for the fight. On The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Pereira stated that he offered to face Chimaev at 205 pounds at UFC 283 in January. The middleweight champion stated that the bout would have to take place at light-heavyweight, as he won’t be able to make middleweight with such little time.
However, the newly crowned champion also alleged that the fight won’t happen, as Khamzat Chimaev turned down the bout. Pereira’s translator stated:
“So, (Chimaev) said about December 10 but he was suspended. Alex did a post this week off of I think a Chinese movie about this guy just goes and challenges people – but not the strong one (and) the one he cannot fight.”
He continued, “Knowing that, Alex went to his manager and said, look I just did a hard weight cut, everyone knows. I cannot make the weight for this. But he said tell the UFC I will challenge him to fight me at 205 at UFC Rio. Chimaev didn’t want it.”
Now, the Chechen has responded on social media, and he doesn’t seem pleased.
Responding to a post regarding Alex Pereira’s comments, Khamzat Chimaev ripped the champion for stating that he turned down the clash. While he didn’t outright state that he declined the matchup, that seems to be the case.
.@KChimaev responds to Alex Pereira claiming he asked to fight him at 205 in January pic.twitter.com/VCVVIGtKrE
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) November 28, 2022
While Alex Pereira has stated the bout won’t happen in January, Khamzat Chimaev still seems interested. The latter has also called to face Colby Covington in March, although ‘Chaos’ hasn’t responded to the callout.
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