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

[CatchnShoot]

Grappling is ghey.

No Ghey for Russian Jebus.

 

[2004 account]

Vakhitov relies on big gloves and high guard a lot for his defense. Reason why Alex and Izzy are special is because of their defense that isn't reliant on a static high guard and big gloves like most lockboxes. They have better head, upper body movement and positioning than most kickboxers. They're also just flat out elite athletes regardless in vacuum and Alex has alien attributes with his height, big bones, frame, power, cardio.

Look at Saki who also relies on big gloves for defense to block and got KOd by Rountree in MMA. Wilnis and Yousri who are 2 of the elite MWs from Alex and Izzy's era of kickboxing and fought both multiple times.... they are 2-2 and 3-2 in MMA right now and they're both 30yo too. Younger than Alex or Izzy. They won't ever be even decent MMA fighters most likely.

I hope Alex and Izzy success doesn't fool casuals into thinking any elite kickboxer can transition successfully because that is not going to happen.

True this, if any succesful kickboxer could just transition to mma then my boy Ghokan Saki would've done much better, albeit he came 2 mma at a later part of his career.

 

[TITS]

Who cares. I'm already tired of this whole Pereira/Adesanya saga and everyone else involved. This isn't really UFC related either. I wish they would just merge all these redundant Pereira spam threads.

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

Hey UFC, this guy is a kickboxing CHAMPION! You gotta offer more than 50k/50k you morons.

 

[Fight Professor]

Russians fighters who actually live in Russia typically do not have a high opinion of the UFC.

 

[StonedLemur]

QUACK

Lol

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Grappling is ghey.

No Ghey for Russian Jebus.

Maybe Vakhitov did some grappling back in the day because he’s from Russia?

 

[Deleted member 589895]

UFC should have a kickboxing section or something.

 

[Pious Augustus]

He turned down that 20k offer! insane

 

[The Legendary Scarface]

This is getting a bit out of hand.
Let me guess, the guy who beat him will be signed by somebody and mentioned in next week's thread?

 

[Deleted member 587672]

The bro loves his kickboxing, man!
And good for him. A much better combat sport.

 

[PhilMcCavity]

Guaranteed joe rogan calls his a “stud” and “world class” in the build up to his first fight

 

[TCE]

I'm surprised he turned UFC down. I swear I read something after he was cut from Glory that he wanted a UFC contact.

 

[true_fan]

Dana told him listen man do u want to fight cheap or what?

 

[Post 2 Decision]

He probably doesn't want to go h2h vs USADA

 

[TCE]

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

I'm still pissed they cut Doumbe after that France shit. That guy trains MMA and is a fucking animal. Glory world champ. KSW has him now.

 

[TCE]

You know Glory pays nothing in comparison to what UFC pays right? If they do, why are they losing most their talent to fight in MMA?

The dude likes being paid above the minimum wage.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

Sign with us and you won't be conscripted.

 

[Necrocrawler]

Considering his mma experience (which looks to be basically 0), i believe he did a smart move.

As said before, not everyone transitions well

 

[dmwalking]

He signed to a striking only promotion.

sounds like he just doesn’t want to grapple. He just wants to strike. It is what it is. Not everyone wants to do mma.