Phil de Fries, a teammate of Tom Aspinall, stated that Alex Pereira previously turned down an opportunity to fight Aspinall. De Fries believes Aspinall is better than Ciryl Gane and would be an excellent matchup for him, though he acknowledged the stylistic differences between the potential opponents. The post raised the question of which heavyweight would be a more difficult stylistic challenge for Pereira. The details surrounding when or under what circumstances Pereira allegedly declined the bout were not provided in the statement.
