De Fries claims Alex Pereira declined to fight Tom Aspinall

Phil de Fries, a friend and teammate of Tom Aspinall, claimed that Alex Pereira previously turned down an opportunity to face Aspinall. De Fries stated that he personally believes Aspinall is better than Francis Ngannou and that the matchups present different stylistic challenges. He suggested that a fight with Pereira would have been excellent for Aspinall's career trajectory. The post raises the question of which heavyweight presents a more difficult stylistic challenge for Pereira between Aspinall and Ngannou. While the claim is notable, it remains unverified as no direct confirmation from Pereira or official sources is mentioned in the post.