UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira doesn’t take Khamzat Chimaev’s callout too seriously.
Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) is challenging Pereira (9-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC) following his win over Jiri Prochazka to claim the vacant belt at UFC 295. “Poitan” has called out Israel Adesanya for a trilogy and is expected to defend his title against former champion Jamahal Hill.
The undefeated Chimaev made a comeback with a close decision win over former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. Pereira responded to Chimaev’s call, saying that “Boltz” has had opportunities in the past and expressed interest in fighting him.
“Actually, it all started after the Adesanya fight when I became middleweight champion,” Pereira said on his YouTube channel through an interpreter. “It was a war with Adesanya. After the fight, I was injured, and Chimaev directly approached me and said he wanted to fight me, he wanted to take my belt, etc. I was like, ‘Okay.’ ‘That’s fine’, I said. Let’s fight at light heavyweight.'”
“He denied it. He didn’t want to fight me at light heavyweight, but now that I’m the champion at light heavyweight, he’s calling me out at light heavyweight. So this just shows that these kinds of fighters are trying to live up to the hype and fame of their champions and get away with it, which makes no sense. Now what do we have to do? Why not call him out at heavyweight? That makes no sense.”
Pereira also harshly criticized Chimaev’s recent social media post.
