Getty Alex Pereira & Khamzat Chimaev
Current UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira sounded off on Khamzat Chimaev, the destructive force who could work his way into 185-pound title contention.
“Poatan” spoke with the media on Wednesday ahead of his first title defense. He’s slated to rematch the man he took the 185-pound belt from in November, Israel Adesanya, as the headlining act of UFC 287 on April 8 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
Pereira has full belief that he’ll get past “The Last Stylebender” again and after acknowledging other middleweight names who could challenge him next, like former champion Robert Whittaker and ex-title contender Paulo Costa, the Brazilian zeroed in on Chimaev.
“This week, I’m obviously focused on Israel, but talk about Whittaker and Paulo Costa,” Pereira said through an interpreter (h/t MMA Junkie). “I know they want to fight me. They were never disrespectful. They always kept their composure, but when you talk about Chimaev, he’s the kind of guy that seems to be a little lost — talks too much.
“Right after my last fight, he said that he wanted to fight me at this weight class. He knows it was right after the fight, everybody’s injured. I could not make that weight so I challenged him to fight at 205 pounds — ran. To be honest, if it’s Whittaker or Paulo Costa, if the organization wants to put us to fight, it’s my job to fight as the UFC champion, but I don’t even want to talk about Chimaev.”
Pereira Said He Agreed to Meet Chimaev at Light Heavyweight in January
As Pereira mentioned, Chimaev expressed interest in contending for the belt at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after Pereira took out Adesanya via TKO at UFC 281. “Ready to fight in Brazil @AlexPereiraUFC let’s go champ,” Chimaev tweeted. The fight between them never came to fruition, however, even though Pereira claimed on MMA Fighting’s “The MMA Hour” later in November that he would fight Chimaev during the event at light heavyweight.
“[I] went to [my] manager and said, ‘Look, I just did a hard weight cut, I can’t make [185] for this right now, but tell the UFC I’ll challenge him to fight me at 205 at [UFC 283] in Rio.’ Chimaev didn’t want it,” Poatan said.
“He’s a big guy, [I’m] a big guy, let’s do it at light heavyweight so we don’t have to worry about a weight cut. We offered 205 for Rio.”
Chimaev’s Divisional Future Is Unclear at This Juncture
Chimaev is currently ranked No. 3 in the welterweight division considering he earned a “Fight of the Year” candidate victory over former title challenger Gilbert Burns last April. However, Chimaev hasn’t competed in the weight class since.
He was supposed to battle Nate Diaz at 170 pounds in September at UFC 279, but “Borz” hit the scale nearly 10 pounds overweight, forcing the fight to be canceled. Instead, Chimaev fought Kevin Holland at a 180-pound catchweight. The failure on the scale seemingly didn’t impact Chimaev’s performance as he ran through Holland en route to a first-round D’Arce choke.
When speaking with the media last month, UFC president Dana White said Chimaev’s next fight would be at 185 pounds, and that he “should be fighting top three guys in the world.”
Chimaev (12-0) has two official middleweight bouts as a UFC athlete with two finishes.