Artem Vakhitov arrived on Dana White’s Contender Series last year billed as the last man to beat Alex Pereira in kickboxing.
The premise was simple: here’s a fighter who could, like Pereira before him, flourish in MMA, and rise up to a point where a rematch with “Poatan” could be possible.
Things were headed in the right direction when the Russian won his DWCS appearance. A future showdown with Pereira seemed to be in the cards.
It won’t be happening any time soon. Earlier this week, news made the rounds that Vakhitov had parted ways with the UFC before even competing for them. Instead, he’s headed back to GLORY on the kickboxing side of things, where he’ll face Rico Verhoeven at GLORY 100 in a heavyweight title fight.
Vakhitov’s story should have paralleled Pereira’s own. The Brazilian arrived in the UFC in pursuit of old kickboxing rival Israel Adesanya, which led to a pair of middleweight title fights inside the octagon. In MMA, “Poatan” and “The Last Stylebender” went 1-1. Both were massive fights for the organization. The UFC promotional machine could have worked similar wonders with Vakhitov.
Instead, those in charge of the company insisted they could only pay Vakhitov the standard Contender Series contract pay, despite his status as champion in another sport.
“Obviously I was delighted to win my fight on DWCS and get offered a contract,” Vakhitov said in a recent interview MMA Fighting. “It was cool that Alex was there, also. It felt like the trilogy fight was very close, just a win or two away. Unfortunately, when it came time to finalize the UFC contract, it became clear that the UFC has strict policies for fighters coming through DWCS.
“Under their protocols, they were only able to offer me the standard contract given to all DWCS signings. My team tried to negotiate, but the UFC’s rules left no room for adjustments. I want to be clear that I don’t take issue with their approach—I respect their structure. But I am a prizefighter, and I have a family to support. I have a limited window to make the most of my career.”
And so Artem Vakhitov returns to kickboxing, and barring the UFC signing him outright, will likely go down as another one of MMA’s “what ifs?”
That seems like a bit of a fumble by the UFC. Alex Pereira is currently set to rematch Magomed Ankalaev for the promotion’s light heavyweight title. Beyond that, however, the 205lb weight class isn’t exactly bursting with contenders. Carlos Ulberg is on an impressive eight-fight win streak, but didn’t exactly look like a world-beater in a close decision win over ex-champ Jan Blachowicz at UFC London last weekend.
