Aspinall's teammate claims Pereira previously declined Tom fight

Phil De Fries, a teammate of Tom Aspinall, has claimed that Alex Pereira previously turned down the opportunity to fight Tom. De Fries believes Aspinall is better than Ciryl Gane and that the matchup would be stylistically different for Pereira. He considers a potential Aspinall fight would have been excellent for Tom. The post poses a question to fans about which opponent would be more stylistically challenging for Pereira between Aspinall and Gane. No official confirmation of Pereira declining the fight has been provided, and the claim comes solely from Aspinall's training partner.