Brendan Allen recently shared his thoughts on a potential Alex Pereira vs. Khamzat Chimaev super fight. The middleweight contender made it clear that he wasn't happy about Chimaev angling for a champ vs. champ fight against Pereira and urged the Chechen-born fighter to clear the 185-pound division first.
Chimaev beat Dricus du Plessis via unanimous decision at UFC 319 in August to win the middleweight championship. In the aftermath, he expressed a desire to face Pereira in a light heavyweight title clash. 'Poatan' notably reclaimed the 205-pound title after beating Magomed Ankalaev via first-round knockout at UFC 320 earlier this month.
Ahead of Allen's fight against Reinier de Ridder at UFC Vancouver this weekend, he shared his two cents on Chimaev calling out Pereira during a media day scrum and said:
"I think that's kind of like the story of Chimaev, right? Like, he just talks a lot. He gets a lot of eyes. It's not to the degree, but it's like Conor [McGregor] talking, talking, talking just to stay relative. Obviously, Chimaev's not that bad, right? He doesn't say that much stuff and that much reckless stuff, but I don't know."Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
He continued:
"I think he's got a lot of work to do in our division first. It's not like he's a huge 85'er that's cutting a lot like Alex was to get to 85 to where it's like, 'Alright, I became a champion, I defended once, let's just go up.' It's weird, but I don't think that's in his future right now." [H/t: MMA Junkie]Watch the full interview below:
Khamzat Chimaev calls out Alex Pereira for a bid to become a two-division champion
Khamzat Chimaev recently expressed a keen desire to become a two-division UFC champion and called for a title fight against Alex Pereira. The reigning middleweight king also claimed that Pereira was a "very good matchup" for him.
In an interview on the Badaev Podcast (via @RedCorner_MMA on X), Chimaev claimed that he's never been threatened by an opponent with striking power and said:
"If you ask me, of course I would love to fight for the second belt. It’s no secret, the guy who’s got the belt at 205 pounds now is a very good matchup for me, except for [if] I should get reckless standing with him... They say he has a lot of power, but I’ve never been edged out in that area. He used to fight at 185, too, and then moved up to 205. So I would like to fight at light heavyweight."Why did you not like this content?
- Clickbait / Misleading
- Factually Incorrect
- Hateful or Abusive
- Baseless Opinion
- Too Many Ads
- Other
Was this article helpful?
Thank You for feedback
About the author
Edited by Nishant Zende.