Before his phenomenal run to UFC gold, Alex Pereira had one rival with whom he left business unfinished in the kickboxing ring.
Former GLORY kickboxing world champion Artem Vakhitov lost a razor-close split decision to the Brazilian in January of 2021, just months before he ended up with the UFC. The pair ended up running it back, to a similarly controversial Majority Decision.
Within nine weeks of that loss, Pereira was making his octagon debut, and almost a year to the day later he was stopping Israel Adesanya to become middleweight champion. He has since lost that belt, but picked up light-heavyweight gold, looking almost unbeatable at 205lb.
But Vakhitov believes he is the man to end that reign.
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Artem Vakhitov moves from kickboxing to MMA in pursuit of UFC gold and Alex Pereira trilogy
After political issues cost him a spot on the GLORY roster in 2022, Vakhitov had just one Muay Thai fight before moving into MMA, making his debut in June of 2023. He lost that bout due to a dislocated elbow, but has gone on to win his next two.
He is now seemingly on the verge of at the very least a call up for Dana White’s Contender Series, if not going straight to the UFC. And after joining up with Kill Cliff MMA in Florida, he is ready for action whenever a fight becomes available.
“I haven’t yet got any exact fight date and I didn’t come to America especially for an exact fight,” he told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat. “I just came here to get some resources for training in one of the US MMA gyms.
“Currently I am in Henri Hooft’s Kill Cliff gym, it is a very good high class combat school. I am doing well with welterweights, middleweights and light-heavyweights, not so long ago I was in Dagestan in camp for Roman Kopylov and now I’ve come to America.
“For sure I want Alex Pereira and everybody is interested in that and there has been a lot of media attention around this. Now I am currently in camp in Miami doing training and I will continue here.”
Artem Vakhitov believes he is the man who can end Alex Pereira’s UFC title reign
One critique of Alex Pereira’s run to UFC gold was the speed at which he was given opportunities to fight for the belt. Coming into the promotion with a 3-1 record, he fought three times between November of 2021 and August of 2022, landing two big KOs before being fast-tracked into a bout with Adesanya.
After being dominated for four rounds by the middleweight champion in Madison Square Garden, Pereira managed to detonate in the closing minutes. He landed one of the most stunning come-from-behind stoppages in history and instantly became one of MMA’s biggest stars.
A rematch with Adesanya followed, which he lost, before moving up to his more natural 205lb, where he quickly became a top contender and world champion. Two short-notice defences at UFC 300 and UFC 303 have seen him cement himself as a pound-for-pound great of the current era.
But Vakhitov believes he can be the man to end Pereira’s run, much like his rival did once before to Adesanya. “Everybody knows Pereira clearly cleaned out all of the division and has stopped all of them,” he said of the light-heavyweight division.
“Potentially now there’s only one opponent left, Magomed Ankalaev. I’m sure that the organisation are very interested in getting me as soon as possible for this fight because now they need someone to stop him.
“The same situation was with Adesanya, so they just wanted to get someone who could stop Adesanya and Pereira came and did that. I think that could work for me as well.”
Artem Vakhitov would get ‘double satisfaction’ from dethroning Alex Pereira to win UFC gold
While defeating Alex Pereira and putting a definitive end to their trilogy, Artem Vakhitov’s main concern is becoming a world champion in yet another discipline. However, he would get what he calls ‘double satisfaction’ if he could kill two birds with one stone in a grudge fight.
“First of all, I want to become a champion,” he explained. “But if Pereira will be in my way? For sure we will meet each other and I feel it would be like double satisfaction to become champion and stop Pereira as well.”
For the UFC champion’s part, he has replied to Vakhitov’s media offensive by claiming that their rematch was fixed by the promoters in order to send him to the UFC with a loss. Ironically, it is a similar claim to the one Adesanya made about Pereira’s initial kickboxing win over him.
And Vakhitov is confident that he can make lightning strike twice, adding: “It’s funny, history has a way of repeating itself.”
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