MMAFighting.com<\/a> that he wouldn\u2019t expect Pereira to take the fight with Chimaev if his desire is to chase the heavyweight title.<\/p>\n\u201cRisks have always existed for him, even before he was in the UFC,\u201d Nascimento said. \u201cFor him, that doesn\u2019t make a difference. Anyone he fights carries a risk. But for his legacy, to build a story never seen before. I would move up, fight the champion, become champion, win the third belt, and from then on, have someone build a statue of me. Every time you pass by, you ask for a blessing [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n
Nascimento wouldn\u2019t blame Pereira if he\u2019s more intrigued by the chance to win gold in a third weight class as opposed to facing Chimaev.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we think from \u2018Poatan\u2019s\u2019 side, if I were \u2018Poatan\u2019 or his coach or anyone close to him, it wouldn\u2019t make sense to fight Chimaev,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019m not talking about risk. I\u2019m simply saying that today \u2018Poatan\u2019 has the opportunity to achieve something no one has ever done, to fight for a third belt. \u2026 But for his legacy, for the history he can build, and simply because it would be something never done or seen before, I wouldn\u2019t accept a fight with Chimaev and would obviously move up to heavyweight to fight the champion and win the third belt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pereira\u2019s next move hasn\u2019t been determined. White has admitted that while he thinks there\u2019s unfinished business at light heavyweight, he\u2019s open to what Pereira prefers given his loyalty to UFC.<\/p>\n
Do you think it\u2019s more likely that Alex Pereira fights Khamzat Chimaev or challenges for the UFC heavyweight title? Share your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Alex Pereira passes on the idea of fighting Khamzat Chimaev, then \u201cBorz\u2019s\u201d team wouldn\u2019t be surprised. Chimaev…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-503833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}