Artem Vakhitov Who Beat Alex Pereira In Kickboxing Revealed The Latter's Biggest Weakness

In recent times, UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has become one of the most well-known fighters in the circle. In just two years, he took two divisions of the UFC by storm, winning the belt in both. First, he defeated the then-middleweight champion Israel Adesanya to claim the middleweight title. Though he got defeated in the rematch, he moved to the light heavyweight division, where he beat former champions Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka to get another belt around his waist in such a short time. It’s his magnificent fighting style that made other fighters think that he is using black magic to win his fights, but there’s one guy who thinks he has decoded the “Chama Magic”, and he is none other than Russian Kickboxer and Martial artist Artem Vakhitov.

Artem Vakhitov and Alex Pereira were part of Glory Kickboxing, and in the two clashes they had in the organization, both fighters won 1-1 each. The first went to a split decision where Alex secured victory in the rematch. Artem Vakhitov defeated Alex Pereira by a majority decision to avenge his loss. In his recent interview with MMA Fighting, the Russian kickboxer exposed Alex Pereira’s weakness and revealed that the UFC light heavyweight champion is not an infallible striker and fights with many openings where he can be defeated.

“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.”
Artem Vakhitov said

The Russian Kickboxer turned MMA fighter is eyeing a trilogy fight in the UFC against the champion as the UFC fighters are already beaten inside their head by Pereira, and only he can beat the Brazilian fighter in a fight if they clash in the UFC.

“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.”
Artem Vakhitov added