Alex Pereira was conscious of Khamzat Chimaev’s callout following his middleweight championship victory at UFC 281 and says that he was able to take Chimaev up on his provide — with a situation.
Pereira stopped longtime rival Israel Adesanya earlier this month within the fifth spherical to win the title earlier this month at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis. After the combat, Chimaev took to social media difficult Pereira to a combat, calling the brand new champ “simple cash,” and that he’d end Pereira in a spherical or much less — and he would take the combat in Brazil.
Talking with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour on Monday, Pereira and coach Plinio Cruz reacted to Chimaev’s callout and stated that they had been open to a combat on the January pay-per-view occasion at gentle heavyweight.
“[I] went to [my] supervisor sand stated, ‘Look, I simply did a tough weight lower, I can’t make [185] for this proper now, however inform the UFC I’ll problem him to combat me at 205 at [UFC 283] in Rio.’ Chimaev didn’t need it,” Pereira stated on The MMA Hour.
“He’s an enormous man, [I’m] an enormous man, let’s do it at gentle heavyweight so we don’t have to fret a few weight lower. We supplied 205 for Rio.”
Messages to Chimaev’s staff from MMA Preventing haven’t been returned.
Chimaev final competed at September’s UFC 279 occasion the place he completed Kevin Holland by way of submission within the first spherical, though Holland wasn’t his unique opponent. “Borz” was scheduled to headline the cardboard in opposition to Nate Diaz however missed weight by 7.5 kilos that led to the complete card being shuffled round, and to extra questions on the way forward for Chimaev with regard to what weight class he would combat at.
In a since deleted Tweet, Chimaev claimed to have accepted a combat with Pereira at UFC 282 on Dec. 10.
Following a 20-plus minute battle with Adesanya, Pereira wants time to get well, which made the ultimate pay-per-view card of the yr not a chance — which Pereira and his staff say Chimaev is properly conscious of.
“All people that watched my combat noticed that it was a tough combat, they know that he obtained harm, wanted to get well, so it’s not possible,” Pereira stated. “He simply goes after what’s not possible.
“After I fought Strickland, it was a finished deal I’d be combating for the title subsequent, so Chimaev needed to leap on the hype practice once more, ‘I’ll combat you,’ and once more, he knew it wasn’t going to occur as a result of he was booked for a title combat so he selected to try this to advertise himself.”
