Khamzat Chimaev fights, essentially, once a year at this point.
For his statistically likely one fight in 2026, the UFC’s middleweight champion, who has not yet defended that title, wants to move up to light heavyweight to take on the two-time champion there, Alex Pereira.
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Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) called out 205-pound champion Alex Pereira (13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) for a fight at the UFC’s proposed event in the nation’s capital city, rumored for June.
Pereira lost the light heavyweight title to Magomed Ankalaev in an upset in March 2025, but won the belt back with a bonus-winning knockout in just 80 seconds this past fall. Pereira has been lobbying for a bout at heavyweight against former UFC fighter Jon Jones, who retired, then tried to unretire a couple weeks later in the midst of the Tom Aspinall drama.
Chimaev burst on the scene in the UFC in 2020 and won three fights in a span of nine weeks. He fought once in 2021 and twice in 2022 – but also had an absurd 9-pound weight miss at welterweight. He’s been at middleweight since then with just one fight each year in 2023, 2024 and 2025. After he submitted Robert Whittaker in October 2024, he won the middleweight title against Dricus De Plessis 10 months later in August 2025.
Check out Chimaev’s callout below.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Khamzat Chimaev calls out Alex Pereira for UFC champs fight
