Phil De Fries claims Alex Pereira previously declined to fight Tom Aspinall

Tom Aspinall's teammate Phil De Fries has stated that Alex Pereira previously turned down an opportunity to fight Aspinall. De Fries believes that Aspinall is better than Ciryl Gane and that different opponents present different stylistic challenges for fighters. The post includes a poll asking fans who would be a more difficult stylistic opponent for Pereira between Aspinall and Gane. While the details are limited in the original post, this represents a callout or discussion about potential heavyweight matchups involving the light heavyweight champion moving up in weight.