UFC Vancouver star thinks he was booked to ‘punish’ fighter Alex Pereira ‘begged’ the UFC to sign

Azamat Bekoev wants to send a message to Alex Pereira after beating his teammate

While it looks like there is a fighter who has trained with Alex Pereira that the UFC is interested in signing, the same cannot be said for Yousri Belgaroui.

The former Glory kickboxer, who faced ‘Poatan’ multiple times before they became teammates, has an MMA record of 8-3, having appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series twice.

A loss on his first appearance led to Belgaroui returning to the Apex in September of 2024 where despite getting a TKO finish, he was heavily criticized by Dana White.

The towering 6’5” middleweight didn’t earn a contract on that night, but he has still found a way into the UFC via stepping in as a replacement opponent to face Azamat Bekoev.

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Bekoev claimed that he believes the UFC has put his opponent in this position to make it clear that they don’t want him on the roster despite Pereira’s influence.

“I think Pereira wanted to push this guy to the UFC because he’s a striker and he couldn’t get a finish in the Contender Series… That’s why the UFC didn’t want to sign him but I think Pereira was asking or begging, I don’t know. That’s why they put him [in this matchup], they want to punish him maybe. This is my opinion.”

Bekoev also said that he hopes to send a message to Pereira after he gets his hand raised.

“I want to say after fight, no chama.”

Azamat Bekoev’s original matchup may have been a similar story

Azamat Bekoev has proven himself to be an exciting rising contender in the middleweight division with back-to-back first round finishes this year.

With him clearly being a very dangerous opponent, his theory regarding Yousri Belgaroui and the promotion giving him a difficult matchup does make some sense.

The same can be said about Bekoev’s originally scheduled matchup that was booked for August 2 before his opponent withdrew and his next outing was pushed back.

Torrez Finney is another fighter who has received a lot of criticism from the UFC, with the promotion being hesitant to sign him following some of his performances at the Apex.