Glory champion who defeated Alex Pereira in his last-ever kickboxing fight unveils UFC icon’s “biggest weakness” during combat

Alex Pereira fast-tracked his way to greatness in two different combat sports with incredible striking skills and an ever-improving defensive grappling arsenal. He is the only fighter to become a two-division champion in kickboxing and MMA, which speaks volumes about the Brazilian's legacy.

However, the last man to beat Pereira in kickboxing, Artem Vakhitov, feels that despite all the positive aspects, 'Poatan' is not a flawless fighter. In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Vakhitov shared his thoughts on Pereira's fighting style, claiming that the offensive-minded fighter leaves a lot of openings for skilled strikers to exploit:

“His biggest weakness is that he is all attack, he has no defense. Because of his lack of defense, he is open to taking a lot of punches to the head if he’s facing a skilled striker. You saw that in his second fight with Adesanya. He got caught because he leaves a lot of openings for people who know what they are doing." [H/T MMA Fighting]

He added:

“These other guys haven’t done well against Alex because their striking isn’t at a high-enough level. They aren’t confident against him and they think he’s unbeatable, so in their heart, they are already defeated before the fight starts. But I have beaten him before in pure striking competition, and I am sure I’ll do it again if we can get our trilogy match in the UFC.”

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Artem Vakhitov plans to repeat history and come after Alex Pereira in the UFC

Alex Pereira's arrival in the UFC and quick ascent to the middleweight title shot can be attributed to his rivalry with Israel Adesanya, who became a dominant UFC middleweight champion. 'Poatan' defeated Adesanya twice in kickboxing and the rivalry carried over to MMA, culminating in two high-stakes title fights at UFC 281 and UFC 287.

Interestingly, Artem Vakhitov finds himself in a similar situation as Pereira when Adesanya was the UFC champion. The Brazilian fighter is the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion and recently defeated Jiri Prochazka to secure the second defense of the title. Meanwhile, Vakhitov transitioned to MMA in 2023 and holds a 2-1 record in the sport.

Speaking further in the aforementioned interview with MMA Fighting, Vakhitov expressed the desire to compete in a trilogy fight against Pereira:

“MMA was always interesting for me anyway, but obviously I am very motivated by the prospect of getting that trilogy match with Pereira. He’s a superstar now and I am happy for him, but when I hear people saying he’s the best striker in the world... well, I think it’s time for MMA fans to learn about me and my team, put it that way.” [H/T MMA Fighting]

Vakhitov and Pereira's kickboxing rivalry resulted in 1-1 record where Vakhitov had the final laugh. Pereira defeated the Russian by split decision to capture the Glory Kickboxing light heavyweight title in January 2021. However, Vakhitov avenged the loss with a majority decision victory in September 2021.