Robert Whittaker is weighing on a hypothetical fight between UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira and the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev.
Over the past few days, rumors circulated about an out-of-nowhere matchup between the two popular competitors. Whittaker, who recently suffered a first-round submission loss to Chimaev at UFC 308 in October, has seen the social media discussion about the matchup, and discussed it on his MMArcade podcast.
“Chimaev [would win], easily,” Whittaker said. “Not easily, [but] Chimaev though [is my pick].”
But while Whittaker feels confident Chimaev would win, he does see a potential nightmare situation for “Borz.”
“I don’t know, unless the [light] heavyweight strength change is a dynamic that Chimaev can’t take [him down]... Chimaev will get the takedown,” Whittaker explained. “He’s good at what he does, plays into his strength.
“But, let’s say hypothetically, [if] Chimaev slows down, gasses a little bit, Pereira won’t. He can strike asleep, dead tired. He’s been doing it his whole life. He’ll kill Chimaev in the standup. It won’t be like the Usman-Chimaev fight where Usman was kind of out-boxing him a little bit at that period when Chimaev got tired. It’ll be a slaughter [if he does that with Pereira].”
Robert Whittaker would pick Khamzat Chimaev over Alex Pereira, but ‘slaughter’ scenario could happen - MMA Fighting