Outpoll | Khamzat Chimaev wants Alex Pereira for second UFC title belt.

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Khamzat Chimaev wants Alex Pereira for second UFC title belt.

Khamzat Chimaev wants Alex Pereira for second UFC title belt.

1 day ago7 min read7 comments

Alright, fight fans, let's break this down like it's the fourth quarter of a Game 7. Khamzat Chimaev, fresh off his grueling, legacy-defining unanimous decision victory over Dricus du Plessis that finally netted him the UFC middleweight strap, isn't just sitting back and admiring his new hardware.Nope, the man they call 'Borz' is already looking across the division with the cold, calculated hunger of a superstar who knows his time is now. In a move that's got the MMA world buzzing harder than a group chat during a PPV main event, Chimaev has publicly called his shot, and it's a massive one: he wants to move up and challenge the terrifying Alex Pereira for the light heavyweight title.'I want to fight Pereira for the second belt,' Chimaev stated, cutting through the usual fighter-speak with the directness of a Dana White announcement. 'If you don't play around with him on the feet, he's a very convenient opponent for me.' Let that marinate for a second. He's essentially saying that Pereira, a man who has flatlined some of the most feared strikers on the planet, a former GLORY two-division champion with the kind of one-punch power that turns lights out, is a 'convenient' matchup.This isn't just confidence; this is the kind of swagger you build after running through the welterweight and middleweight divisions with relative ease, a belief in his own suffocating wrestling and grappling pedigree that would be the key to neutralizing Pereira's legendary left hook. But in true Chimaev fashion, he immediately followed up this grand, two-belt ambition with the pragmatic realism of a fighter who knows the business side of the fight game.'Or they'll give me Imavov, or de Ridder, or Hernandez, it doesn't make a difference,' he shrugged, name-dropping a few other top contenders with the casual indifference of someone scrolling through a menu. 'The main thing is that they pay me well.' And there it is, the perfect blend of championship aspiration and get-the-bag mentality that defines the modern UFC superstar. This callout sets up a potential superfight of epic proportions.Picture it: Chimaev, the undefeated wrecking ball from Chechnya with a style as relentless as a full-court press, against Pereira, the stoic, stone-cold knockout artist from Brazil who just reclaimed the 205-pound crown in a dramatic revenge victory over Magomed Ankalaev. The stylistic clash is a fantasy booking dream.Can Pereira keep the fight standing and find that one fight-ending shot against Chimaev's relentless pressure? Or will Chimaev's Sambo-based grappling, which he used to maul elite competition like Gilbert Burns and Kevin Holland, prove to be the kryptonite for the kickboxing king? The narrative writes itself—the hunter versus the grappler, the quest for double-champ status versus the defense of a hard-won throne. It's the kind of marquee matchup that could headline a stadium show, drawing comparisons to other crossover stars who dared to be great across weight classes.Yet, lurking beneath the surface is the very real possibility that the UFC might not rush into this. They have a stable of contenders in both divisions, and a fight against someone like Nassourdine Imavov or a clash with a fellow rising star might be the safer, more traditional route.But Chimaev has never been about the traditional path. He's a disruptor, and this callout is him once again forcing the issue, putting the promotion and the fans on notice that he's not here to play the long game; he's here to take all the gold, as quickly as possible, as long as the paycheck is right. It's a power play, and the entire MMA world is now waiting to see if the promotion will book this dream fight or if Chimaev will have to go through a few more 'convenient' opponents first on his path to immortality.