Robert Whittaker is weighing on a hypothetical struggle between UFC mild heavyweight champ Alex Pereira and the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev.
Over the previous few days, rumors circulated about an out-of-nowhere matchup between the 2 well-liked rivals. Whittaker, who lately suffered a first-round submission loss to Chimaev at UFC 308 in October, has seen the social media dialogue in regards to the matchup, and mentioned it on his MMArcade podcast.
“Chimaev [would win], simply,” Whittaker stated. “Not simply, [but] Chimaev although [is my pick].”
Chimaev is in prime place to struggle for the middleweight title in his subsequent struggle following his brutal end of Whittaker. Dricus du Plessis is about to defend the belt towards Sean Strickland in a rematch at February’s UFC 312 occasion.
Pereira might face high contender Magomed Ankalaev after three profitable title defenses in 2024, however “Poatan” has already teased that won’t be his subsequent opponent. The Brazilian star has additionally been known as out a number of instances by heavyweight champion Jon Jones for a superfight.
But when the UFC had been to one way or the other put collectively a Pereira vs. Chimaev matchup, though Whittaker feels assured Chimaev would win, he does see a possible nightmare state of affairs for “Borz.”
“I don’t know, except the [light] heavyweight energy change is a dynamic that Chimaev can’t take [him down]… Chimaev will get the takedown,” Whittaker defined. “He’s good at what he does, performs into his energy.
“However, let’s say hypothetically, [if] Chimaev slows down, gasses a bit of bit, Pereira received’t. He can strike asleep, lifeless drained. He’s been doing it his entire life. He’ll kill Chimaev within the standup. It received’t be just like the Usman-Chimaev struggle the place Usman was sort of out-boxing him a bit of bit at that interval when Chimaev acquired drained. It’ll be a slaughter [if he does that with Pereira].”
