Alex Pereira and Artem Vakhitov split their two-fight series in GLORY title fights at one apiece before the Brazilian departed kickboxing to focus full-time on MMA.
Now "Poatan" seems surprised to see Vakhitov's recent comments.
In a recent interview, Vakhitov told MMA Fighting that Pereira "is a superstar and I am happy for him," but also said he's absolutely down to meet Pereira again, this time under MMA rules now that Vakhitov is focused on building his own MMA career.
Vakhitov added that he believes many of Pereira's recent opponents have been too intimidated by the UFC light heavyweight champion and are "already defeated before the fight starts."
"His biggest weakness is that he is all attack, he has no defense," Vakhitov said of Pereira. "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.
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"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.
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