Tom Aspinall's teammate claims Alex Pereira declined fight with Aspinall

Phil De Fries, a training partner of Tom Aspinall, stated that Alex Pereira previously turned down the opportunity to fight Tom Aspinall. De Fries believes Aspinall is better than Ciryl Gane, though he acknowledged that stylistically the matchups differ. The post suggests this would have been an excellent fight for Aspinall. De Fries asked followers to weigh in on which opponent would be more stylistically challenging for Pereira. The claim adds context to ongoing discussions about potential heavyweight contender matchups.