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

Should Artem Vakhitov have signed the UFC contract?

  • Total voters
    224
He made the right choice. You don’t just jump in with literally no experience. He needs a couple years of training and fighting frequently.
 
don't even think he trains much grappling if any so it was smart to decline the contract. Also, anyone who has seen him fight knows his style is not going to work for mma
 
Everyone talking about how UFC won't pay him but what is Muay Thai Factory? They pay good? Someone educate me here.
 
Good. He's super inactive even as champion. Also Alex won the first fight they immediately rematched and it was still very close even though Vakhitov was bigger
 
BoxerMaurits said:
The former GLORY Kickboxing LHW-champion turned down offers from UFC and ONE Championship after GLORY terminated his contract.



Full release:
https://beyondkick.com/news/artem-vakhitov-signs-with-muaythai-factory-set-to-debut-in-december-1
@Yodsanan


He now signed with Russian promotion “MuayThai Factory” and is set to debut in December.






Artem Vakhitov and Alex Pereira went 1-1 in GLORY, switching the LHW-belt in two very close fights.
Here is the highlight video of both titlefights combined:




Good move? Or should Vakhitov have signed with UFC to chase Pereira like Poatan chased Izzy and continue the rivalry?

Discuss..
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Make big money and use roids.
 
He didn't reach for greatness and will be remembered for it.
 
Siver! said:
Good for him, I guess.

If it makes him a big star in Russia, I see no issues with it.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, as they say.
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I know Vakhitov has a good relationship with MuayThai Factory. He has been invited to their events several times, so I’m not surprised about them working together.

Though, I think signing with ONE was his best option after he broke up with Glory. He could compete in their kickboxing and muay thai divisions, and try out MMA if he felt like it.
Also, he could challenge himself in kickboxing against the likes of Roman Kryklia (they trained a lot before so I’m not quite sure about that tbh), Rade Opačić, Iraj Azizpour, etc.
Lot of interesting matchups over there
 
I voted no, if he turned it down he likely was offered much more money elsewhere and/or the ability to continue doing kickboxing instead of MMA.
 
Pechan said:
lol probably some russian mob shit, no way that promotion is paying him more than the UFC and One.
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Sure they could, just cause the UFC can offer more money for every fighter doesn't mean they will. He's also likely more popular in Europe too so he's more valuable to them than to the UFC or One.
 
JumJum said:
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.
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The UFC offers contracts to fighters that are pay cuts all the time. Mamed Khalidov was one of the biggest names outside the UFC at MW years ago and the contract they offered to him was a pay cut so he turned it down.

 
NoBiasJustMMA said:
The UFC offers contracts to fighters that are pay cuts all the time. Mamed Khalidov was one of the biggest names outside the UFC at MW years ago and the contract they offered to him was a pay cut so he turned it down.

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Think for a second why would anyone especially the best fighters in the world would fight in the UFC if you barely get any money...

I don't know about that guy. I wouldn't be surprised if both Adesanya and Alex got offered less money than glory when they joined the UFC but they promised them waaay more if they will succeed to be champs. They had much higher confidence than Artem so they agreed.

I read an intreview before about some lesser known young MMA fighter who got offered contracts from both UFC and bellator. He said that the UFC is more of a high risk high reward. You fight against tougher opponents and at the beginning of your career the payment might be lower however if you believe that you can get into the top so you will get there the most money possible.
 
JumJum said:
Think for a second why would anyone especially the best fighters in the world would fight in the UFC if you barely get any money...

I don't know about that guy. I wouldn't be surprised if both Adesanya and Alex got offered less money than glory when they joined the UFC but they promised them waaay more if they will succeed to be champs. They had much higher confidence than Artem so they agreed.

I read an intreview before about some lesser known young MMA fighter who got offered contracts from both UFC and bellator. He said that the UFC is more of a high risk high reward. You fight against tougher opponents and at the beginning of your career the payment might be lower however if you believe that you can get into the top so you will get there the most money possible.
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Yes, the potential money in the UFC is more but not everyone that the UFC is offering contracts to is young enough to get to that potential. Also if you have a style that the UFC doesn't like you might never get that opportunity to make that kind of money where as that's not as much of an issue outside the UFC.
 
NoBiasJustMMA said:
Yes, the potential money in the UFC is more but not everyone that the UFC is offering contracts to is young enough to get to that potential. Also if you have a style that the UFC doesn't like you might never get that opportunity to make that kind of money where as that's not as much of an issue outside the UFC.
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Alex was a grandpa in athlete age when he joined the UFC. And what style do you talking about? Maybe trashtalker which generates the most money but this is true also for boxing. If your fighting styleake you win enough so eventually you'll be a champion that's why Usman did it despite being slow hold and stall
 
JumJum said:
Alex was a grandpa in athlete age when he joined the UFC. And what style do you talking about? Maybe trashtalker which generates the most money but this is true also for boxing. If your fighting styleake you win enough so eventually you'll be a champion that's why Usman did it despite being slow hold and stall
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Alex started MMA 7 years ago when he was 28, I'm sorry but 28 is not close to old for an MMA fighter, it's pretty much when most fighters are hitting their primes.

By style I'm talking about fighting style, if the UFC doesn't like your fighting style you might never get the chance to make big money and your road to a title shot will be much longer. Most fighters also can't get 3-4 fights a year in the UFC cause they have so many fighters it's not possible to give them all 3 fights a year so that potential money isn't there for a lot of MMA fighters due to their age and the name they build up outside the UFC that the UFC tends to undervalue and possibly their fighting style.

If you are young and have an entertaining fighting style or if you are young and are good enough to just almost never lose you will see that potential money but if not it's a big gamble and if your a big name in Europe you're going to likely have to take a pay cut for a while before you start making more money.

Alex is a terrible example cause he started MMA when he was still in his 20s and he has an exciting style and he had 2 wins over Izzy which made his road to a title shot way shorter than it would be for pretty much anyone else.

Another reason why Alex is a bad example is that kickboxing generally pays less than MMA.
 
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NoBiasJustMMA said:
Alex started MMA 7 years ago when he was 28, I'm sorry but 28 is not close to old for an MMA fighter, it's pretty much when most fighters are hitting their primes.

By style I'm talking about fighting style, if the UFC doesn't like your fighting style you might never get the chance to make big money and your road to a title shot will be much longer. Most fighters also can't get 3-4 fights a year in the UFC cause they have so many fighters it's not possible to give them all 3 fights a year so that potential money isn't there for a lot of MMA fighters due to their age and the name they build up outside the UFC that the UFC tends to undervalue and possibly their fighting style.

If you are young and have an entertaining fighting style or if you are young and are good enough to just almost never lose you will see that potential money but if not it's a big gamble and if your a big name in Europe you're going to likely have to take a pay cut for a while before you start making more money.

Alex is a terrible example cause he started MMA when he was still in his 20s and he has an exciting style and he had 2 wins over Izzy which made his road to a title shot way shorter than it would be for pretty much anyone else.

Another reason why Alex is a bad example is that kickboxing generally pays less than MMA.
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The fact so many MMA fighters enter UFC at such an old age is a major problem need to get fixed asap. The top fighters should be at their early 20's just like other sports but the age of the sport and its lower popularity compared to soccer, basketball, tennis is an issue.

Colby fighting style is boring yet he is good trashtalker so it's good enough. Obviously exciting fighting style is also important tough Leon is interesting striker yet he is bad self promoter so his road was too long.

Anyway i don't see what the point you try to make here. You just changed subjects. Every combat sports pays badly compared to MMA excluding boxing.

For the guy you talked about earlier. We both don't know what happened in his negotiations with the UFC but i assume he didn't have the confidence to be UFC champion because there is no way he got better payment in his unknown MMA promotion as a champ
 
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