Former UFC champion thinks Khamzat Chimaev beats Alex Pereira in rumored title fight

One former UFC titleholder believes Khamzat Chimaev would be able to dethrone the current light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

Rumors have been swirling since Pereira took to social media to claim that Magomed Ankalaev will not be his next title challenger. Some have speculated that Chimaev will move up from 185 pounds to challenge Pereira for the gold at light heavyweight.

Whether or not that rumor has any juice to it remains to be seen, but Robert Whittaker already has an idea of who would win the fight.

RELATED: ALEX PEREIRA CLAIMS HIS NEXT FIGHT “WON’T” BE AGAINST MAGOMED ANKALAEV

Robert Whittaker Picks Khamzat Chimaev if he Challenges Alex Pereira

During a new edition of the MMArcade Podcast, Robert Whittaker was asked who he thinks would win the rumored title clash between Alex Pereira and Khamzat Chimaev.

“Chimaev, easily,” Whittaker said. “Not easily, Chimaev though.”

Whittaker did admit that while Chimaev’s grappling is always on point, the threat of “Poatan’s” standup can’t be ignored.

“He’s [Chimaev] good at what he does,” Whittaker said. “He plays into his strengths, but lets say, hypothetically, Chimaev slows down, gases a little bit, Pereira won’t. He can strike asleep, dead tired. Dude’s been doing it his whole life. He’ll kill Chimaev in the standup. It won’t be like that Usman-Chimaev fight where Usman was kind of outboxing him a little bit at that period where Chimaev got tired. It’ll be a slaughter, but does it go that far?”

Time will tell what the UFC has planned if Pereira vs. Ankalaev isn’t the next light heavyweight title fight. We’ll keep you posted once more details emerge on the 205-pound title picture.

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