News Artem Vakhitov, last man to beat Alex Pereira, turns down UFC contract

[Dreyga Hates You Sherbums]

He probably can’t grapple

 

[Tweak896]

I mean it doesn't sound like he has much mma experience, then he has to rely on that the guy he beat in K1 is going to move to LHW and become champ. There are alot of what ifs. If he doesn't get Pereira matchup he is going to get out grappled by most guys. Atleast Pereira relied on Izzy remaining dominant champ at MW. Whats the point if Pereira isn't even LHW champ? Not the same amount of money on the line.

 

[ChimRichalds]

I voted yes, mostly because I'm all for other combat sports athletes crossing over to MMA.

 

[Luthien]

 

[Iroh]

First fight was clearly robbed by Peireira
Vakhitov won 2 times against Pereira

I hear ya, and not trying to be a pain here, but the term is "getting robbed by the judges", not by the opponent. The opponent can't help if he is declared winner, when he shouldn't be. That's the judges' fault.

 

[Po Atan]

Artem has a very bad style for mma. Very high guard dependant. I don’t see how he transitions to mma well at all without some serious work. He is an amazing kickboxer though.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

I mean it doesn't sound like he has much mma experience, then he has to rely on that the guy he beat in K1 is going to move to LHW and become champ. There are alot of what ifs. If he doesn't get Pereira matchup he is going to get out grappled by most guys. Atleast Pereira relied on Izzy remaining dominant champ at MW. Whats the point if Pereira isn't even LHW champ? Not the same amount of money on the line.

He is much more of a traditional technical kickboxer than Pereira, uses the big gloves for high guard far more.

 

[OldBoy91]

Vakhitov is awesome. His leg kicks are fantastic.

Should be 2-0 against Pereira though. The judging in the first fight was whack.

 

[Iroh]

View attachment 953850

Khamzat takes them all down, at the same time, with a single takedown and plays human tetris with their bodies.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

I mean it doesn't sound like he has much mma experience, then he has to rely on that the guy he beat in K1 is going to move to LHW and become champ. There are alot of what ifs.Whats the point if Pereira isn't even LHW champ? Not the same amount of money on the line.

I think it’s a matter of time before Pereira moves up to LHW. My guess is Alex defends against Izzy next, defends against the winner of Rob and Costa, and then he moves up to LHW after Glover retires.
He can’t do that grueling weightcut to 185 until his 40’s.. at some point he gotta move up

 

[Luthien]

Khamzat takes them all down, at the same time, with a single takedown and plays human tetris with their bodies.

 

[CerebralKnievel]

My guess is that he does not train UFC.

IDK why the UFC would offer him a contract. At least One FC has kickboxing and muay thai.

It may have been a development deal of some sort. The Twitter post is brief, so doesn't really explain much beyond the big talking points.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

QUACK

 

[JumJum]

The dude likes being paid above the minimum wage.

You got to be absolute retarded to believe UFC pays peanuts and having elite athletes including both Alex and Israel who decided to transition with all of its difficulty to MMA in the prime of their kickboxing careers. The reality is that UFC is high risk high reward. being top 5 or even top 10 in the UFC is the best money you could get than any kickboxing promotion however nobody guarantees for Artem success in MMA and the guy is reliant too much on his big gloves making successful transition more difficult for him. most likely he believes that he wont have chance in the top of the UFC and the transition might also hurt his kickboxing career if he will try to go back. Better safe money than huge bet sometimes.

 

[Conan the K-9]

Artem has a very bad style for mma. Very high guard dependant. I don’t see how he transitions to mma well at all without some serious work. He is an amazing kickboxer though.

His guard is like an invitation to shoot for a take down. Maybe he could fix that, but the real thing is that he would not be able to overtower and reach bully smaller opponents like Izzy and Alex do.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

You got to be absolute retarded to believe UFC pays peanuts and having elite athletes including both Alex and Israel who decided to transition with all of its difficulty to MMA in the prime of their kickboxing careers. The reality is that UFC is high risk high reward. being top 5 or even top 10 in the UFC is the best money you could get than any kickboxing promotion. Better safe money than huge bet sometimes.

If you’re a champion or big name you get very good money.
GLORY paid their fighters a total of €1.625 million for their last event (9 fights on the card).
I assume Badr and Reem took the lion’s share of that money though. Also, this number doesn’t include PPV-points. A guess what PPV numbers Collision 4 did? The event was the lone big combat sports event that weekend so I guess a lot of MMA/boxing fans tuned in aswell.

 

[kingmob6]

MMA is a different beast. Not every kickboxer will want to become an mma fighter. Tis normal.

 

[uff]

First fight was clearly robbed by Peireira
Vakhitov won 2 times against Pereira

i thought the same when i first watched the fight, but soon after learned that glory judgin criteria is quite diffrent from other promotions, and by that ruleset Alex Pereira clearly won the first fight.

 

[JumJum]

If you’re a champion or big name you get very good money.
GLORY paid their fighters a total of €1.625 million for their last event (9 fights on the card).
I assume Badr and Reem took the lion’s share of that money though. Also, this number doesn’t include PPV-points. A guess what PPV numbers Collision 4 did? The event was the lone big combat sports event that weekend so I guess a lot of MMA/boxing fans tuned in aswell.

Badr and Reem are both huge superstars something that Alex and Izzy werent so much for the casual fan before UFC. Also i didnt claimed that kickbox champs are poor but they earn much less than UFC champs. eventually if it wasnt the money both Izzy and Alex would have stayed forever in kickbox

 

[Aurelian]

Damn, sucks for him about Glory cutting all Russian fighters. If he came to the UFC he'd presumably be a LHW so there isn't much of a rivalry with Pereira.