Robert Whittaker would pick Khamzat Chimaev over Alex Pereira, but ‘slaughter’ scenario could happen

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].”

Chimaev is in prime position to fight for the middleweight title in his next fight following his brutal finish of Whittaker. Dricus du Plessis is set to defend the belt against Sean Strickland in a rematch at February’s UFC 312 event.

Pereira could face top contender Magomed Ankalaev after three successful title defenses in 2024, but “Poatan” has already teased that will not be his next opponent. The Brazilian star has also been called out multiple times by heavyweight champion Jon Jones for a superfight.

But if the UFC were to somehow put together a Pereira vs. Chimaev matchup, even though 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].”