Beneil Dariush doesn’t give Alex Pereira much of a chance of beating Khamzat Chimaev.
In the immediate aftermath of Pereira’s (13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) light heavyweight title win over Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320 a week ago, UFC middleweight champion Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) called out the Brazilian, despite the two fighters being separated by two weight classes.
“I’m ready to fight you in the heavyweight,” Chimaev tweeted, “you won’t find a super fight than our fight no chama this is SMASH EVERYBODY.”
While a bout between both champions seems unlikely to happen, Dariush (23-6-1 MMA, 17-6-1 UFC) believes that Chimaev would present a nightmare matchup for “Poatan” despite the size difference.
“For Pereira, no, I'd like to see him go actually go fight a big fight like the Jon Jones fight or something,” Dariush told Helen Yee. “I feel like he's 38, he's maybe considering retiring. I don't want him to get mauled by Khamzat. I'm just being honest, I really don't. I want to see Pereira ride off into the sunset with a big fight, big paycheck. And that's how I'd like to see Pereira finish his career.”
Before their first meeting at UFC 313 in March, Ankalaev was considered to be a nightmare stylistic matchup for former GLORY Kickboxing champion Pereira. Despite the Russian outpointing Pereira over 5 rounds, he failed to take Pereira down once during the entire duration of the fight – a statistic that surprised many.
Despite Pereira showing solid defensive wrestling over both fights, Dariush thinks Chimaev presents an entirely different challenge.
“Absolutely,” he answered when asked if Chimaev has what it takes to beat the Brazilian. “The way Khamzat wrestles is very different than the way Ankalaev wrestles. Ankalaev seems to be more of almost like a ‘Greco’ style. More body locks. He doesn't really go…he doesn't commit so much. Khamzat completely commits. Khamzat completely commits, completely turns the corner. He's able to get on your back. He's able to do so much more. Ankalaev doesn't have that kind of wrestling. Don't get me wrong, Ankalaev is a good wrestler, but not like Khamzat.”
