Alex Pereira just issued a very unexpected challenge to Khamzat Chimaev, as he wants to face him in a grappling match at a UFC BJJ event. It’s not exactly unheard of for MMA fighters to face one another under other rulesets of course, but it is less common when they’re both active competitors. What makes this challenge even more unusual is the fact that Pereira is a striker through and through; without much experience in competitive Jiu-Jitsu outside of MMA. This isn’t the first time that Pereira has offered to make his professional grappling debut though, as he previously challenged Anthony Smith as well.
Pereira issued the challenge in response to Chimaev calling him out for an MMA fight, shutting down that idea and pivoting to this new angle:
“Let’s fight in grappling… And another thing, we can fight in the UFC. UFC is doing BJJ, right? UFC BJJ. Let’s do this, then. Let’s make it happen.”
It seems like Pereira is eager to test out the BJJ black belt he received last year, but Chimaev has submitted plenty of black belts before. Obviously the two men are big names in the combat sports world and any match between them would be pretty lucrative, but Pereira doesn’t actually plan on making any money off it at all:
“I don’t even know how much I’m gonna win, but it’s gonna be a good money. You know who I am, right? It’s gonna be a good money. And this money is gonna be donated 100% for charity. Is that okay with you?”
Chimaev wasted no time in responding but he kept it short:
”Let’s go, easy money.”
The full interview with Alex Pereira where he challenges Khamzat Chimaev to a UFC BJJ grappling match was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Mac Life MMA:
