Alex Periera has done something that seemed next to impossible until he did it. The reigning light heavyweight and former middleweight champion has somehow managed to become a two-division champion in the world’s toughest, most competitive combat sports promotion in only seven fights.

And this is in large part because of his legendary left hand, which holds concussive knockout power that can send anyone below 205 crashing to the canvas. However, one of Pereira’s old foes thinks that the Brazilian’s lethal stand-up game has been more of a curse as it has prevented him from fully developing another important skill: defense.

Vakhitov on why he is confident he can beat Alex Pereira in MMA

Former Glory light heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov fought Alex Pereira for the first time on Glory 77 in January 2021. After a hard-fought contest, ‘Poatan’ won the bout and the Glory Kickboxing light heavyweight title via a close split decision. However, given the close nature of their bout, they were booked to rematch later that year at Glory 78, which the Russian won via a majority decision.

Vakhitov, who has followed in ‘Poatan’s footsteps and has transitioned to MMA, spoke about Pereira’s biggest weaknesses in a recent interview. He felt that the biggest drawback of Pereira’s game was his lack of defense. The former Glory champ felt that while the Brazilian excelled at offense, he always had trouble against truly elite strikers like him and Israel Adesanya, who was the last man to beat Pereira in MMA.

“[Alex’s] 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,” he said.

In addition, the Russian clarified that the reason the likes of Sean Strickland, Jiri Prochazka, and Jamahal Hill couldn’t beat the light heavyweight champion was because their striking wasn’t up to the mark. “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,” he said.

And while Vakhitov has promised that he will be the one to beat Pereira should they fight in an MMA match, that possibility is getting remoter as Pereira has floated not only a move to heavyweight in MMA but also a possible pro boxing debut in the near future.

Anthony Joshua invites ‘Poatan’ to box

Alex Pereira, of course, wants to move up to heavyweight and take a shot at becoming the UFC’s first three-division champion. The 205-pound champ told Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview after his UFC 303 victory over Jiri Prochazka that he sees a move to the UFC’s heaviest division in his ‘future’.

And while Dana White has publicly shot down the idea yet again, things can change in the future. In addition, former unified boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, impressed with the Brazilian UFC champ’s striking has invited him to make his pro boxing debut.

Pereira surprisingly didn’t say no to the idea, thanked the former heavyweight champ for his vote of confidence in his striking, and even asked whom he could fight in his pro boxing debut. Of course, this shouldn’t be taken as a sign that Pereira is looking to transition to boxing. But, given the exponentially more money that is on offer in boxing, it would be well worth a shot.