Phil De Fries claims Alex Pereira previously declined Tom Aspinall fight

Tom Aspinall's training partner, Phil De Fries, stated that Alex Pereira previously turned down an opportunity to fight Tom Aspinall. De Fries acknowledged that while he believes Tom is better than Ciryl Gane, different opponents present different stylistic challenges for fighters. He suggested that a fight between Aspinall and Pereira would have been an excellent matchup for Tom. The post invited fans to vote on which fighter would present a more difficult stylistic challenge for Pereira between Aspinall and Gane. This revelation adds context to ongoing discussions about potential heavyweight matchups and Pereira's willingness to move up in weight.