3. Alex Pereira vs Khamzat Chimaev
Compared to the rest of this list, these two fighters don’t have a history of build up. But instead, you have a collision of arguably the biggest super powers that the UFC has ever had.
In 2020, Khamzat Chimaev turned the UFC upside down and became a bonafide megastar that the promotion put aggressively front and center. It felt like it was a matter of not if but when Chimaev would fight for the title. Illness and visa issues threw the coldest of rain on his parade in recent years, but finally he reached the pinnacle by winning the title in August.
Then on the other side is Alex Pereira, perhaps the most efficient champion in the history of the UFC. In just seven UFC fights he’s captured belts in two different weight classes and carved such a path of destruction that in a short span he’s already entered the conversation of his place in the history of all-time greats in the sport of MMA.
If there is one thread connecting the two, it is that Chimaev and Pereira eventually were in the same weight class at 185 pounds. Chimaev was the one more likely to get to the belt first, but when he was inactive Pereira quickly swept in and got the push that seemed to be reserved for Chimaev. Behind a similarly dominant run, it was easy to spin the narrative that Pereira had become what the UFC had originally intended Chimaev to be.
Finally, there remains the big questions. Can the size and power of Pereira stop what has so far been a nearly unstoppable grappling attack from Chimaev? There is only one way to find out.
