UFC offer rejected by Alex Pereira's nemesis, Logan Paul responds to Lionel Messi's bodyguard, Gordon Ryan shares secret Jon Jones story: MMA News Roundup

Alex Pereira's rival from his GLORY Kickboxing days turned down a UFC offer and subsequently, an opportunity at the trilogy with 'Poatan'. Elsewhere, Gordon Ryan shared a Jon Jones story that the fans did not know before.

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Artem Vakhitov turns down Dana White's UFC offer

Artem Vakhitov, the last man to beat Alex Pereira in kickboxing, has turned down an offer from Dana White. When he won a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series, many believed Vakhitov would be for Pereira what he was to Israel Adesanya - an arch-nemesis across sports. They are currently 1-1 in kickboxing.

However, Vakhitov was not happy with the pay he was being offered. He told MMA Junkie in a statement:

"According to UFC protocols, they were not able to offer me more than the standard contract offered to all fighters who progress through [DWCS]… My team attempted to negotiate, but the UFC rules were strict, and no changes were possible."

Vakhitov added:

"I have daughters to provide for and a short window of opportunity. It would have been a great dream to enter the UFC, but I could not justify the loss of earnings this contract would represent."

His manager, Andrey Busygin, shared that they were expecting a contract similar to what was given to Pereira initially. He will now face Rico Verhoeven, who is eyeing a fight with Francis Ngannou.

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Logan Paul responds to Lionel Messi's bodyguard's callout

Lionel Messi's bodyguard Yassine Chueko, a former Navy SEAL with training in mixed martial arts, has offered to represent the soccer star in the boxing ring against Logan Paul.

The rivalry stems from Messi's beverage company Mas+ suing Paul's Prime Hydration for anti-competitive behaviour and getting slapped with a countersuit for trade dress infringement. In light of the legal battle, Paul had initially offered to settle the score with Messi in a boxing match.

However, he has no interest in fighting Messi's bodyguard. In a video uploaded on his official YouTube channel, the WWE star addressed the matter:

"Tell him to get in line, bro. He's an MMA guy who thinks he can box. He thinks he's entitled to victory or attention because he's [Lionel] Messi's bodyguard... I really would start to feel bad for Messi because he's going to lose this lawsuit, he's probably going to lose his bodyguard, because why would you hire a bodyguard who could get beaten up by a YouTuber? Man is just losing everything, except the World Cup."

Take a look at Logan Paul's comments below (2:00):

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Gordon Ryan shares a never-heard-before Jon Jones story

After knocking Stipe Miocic out in the third round at UFC 309, Jon Jones broke out the 'Donald Trump Dance' in front of the President of the United States of America, who was attending the event with Elon Musk. According to his teammate and jiu-jitsu savant Gordon Ryan, it was not an impromptu decision.

The UFC heavyweight champion not only came prepared to the octagon for the dance but had practised it for 20 minutes during warm-up. Ryan shared the story on Joe Rogan's Fight Companion episode aired on March 22:

"Good Jon Jones story that nobody knows. I was cornering him for his last fight against Stipe. We found out that [Donald] Trump was going to be there... Probably 20 minutes of that warm-up was just him practicing the mechanics of how to do the Trump dance right... We looked it up, YouTubed it... We were like, ‘No, the hands gotta be a little bit higher.’ We were coaching him through it."

Jones was among the several MMA fighters who attended Trump's inauguration ceremony.