Phil de Fries, a friend of Tom Aspinall, has stated that Alex Pereira previously turned down an opportunity to fight Aspinall. De Fries acknowledged that while he believes Aspinall is better than Francis Ngannou, the matchups are stylistically different. The post suggests that a fight with Pereira would have been excellent for Aspinall's career. The channel asked followers to vote on which fighter would be a more difficult stylistic matchup for Pereira: Aspinall or Ngannou. The post presents limited details beyond de Fries' claim about the declined fight offer.
