Chase DeMoor Says Alex Pereira Can Get It Too in London
Chase DeMoor said Alex Pereira can step into the Copper Box Arena on October 10 and get punched up with his coach. The Misfits heavyweight champion made the offer on IFN Boxing while discussing his title defense against Plinio Cruz, the longtime coach and translator in Pereira’s corner.
Leonardo Beernaert asked whether Pereira, whose bow-and-arrow celebration has followed him from kickboxing into the UFC, would be in London for the fight. DeMoor did not treat the question as a ringside rumor.
“Listen, if Alex is there, Alex can get it too,” he said. “He can hop up in the ring and he can get punched up just as, just like his coach is going to get punched up.”
The bout is already booked. Misfits Boxing put DeMoor against Cruz for the heavyweight title on October 10 at the Copper Box Arena in London, on a card headlined by Joey Essex against Dapper Laughs and streamed on DAZN. Bet365 lists an approximate ring walk of 9 p.m. BST. The matchup had been aimed at September 26 before it was moved.
Cruz is not a crossover newcomer in the way most Misfits opponents are. He is a former World MMA Awards Coach of the Year, an 8-9 professional mixed martial artist who has not competed since the last bout of that career, and the man most closely associated with Pereira’s camps. On September 18 the promotion confirmed the London date. Cruz later wrote that he was happy and inspired to be fighting for the Misfits heavyweight title on October 10, and he signed the post with Pereira’s “Chama.”
DeMoor treated the coach’s connection as the point of the fight, not a sideshow. “I took the bow and arrow thing. That’s been my thing since the start of Misfits,” he said. “I’m going to drop some arrows into his coach. I’ll drop an arrow or two into him.” He then folded Pereira into the same sentence. “They can both chom on my nuts when I’m done with them.”
The champion said he would not wait until a post-fight interview to deliver the message. “While I’m punching up his coach, I’m going to look him dead in his eyes and be like, you’re next,” DeMoor said.
“I’m going to do that in the middle of the round.” He framed the line as a sequel to something he had already promised another opponent. “Just like I promised Andrew Tate that I would look him in the face and say, what color is your Bugatti when he’s leaking red.”
That Tate fight is the form DeMoor is carrying into London. Bet365 lists him at 5-1 with two knockouts in his boxing record, with the most recent result a majority decision over Tate on August 25. Reports around the original September date said that turnaround, after a separate title win, was why the Cruz fight could not be made on the Miami card. Cruz had publicly said he was told DeMoor’s eye was injured and the bout would have to wait.
DeMoor’s closing picture assumed the knockout and put Pereira in the front row for it. “After I knock out his coach, I’m going to go sit right next to him ringside and I’m going to give myself a round of applause,” he said. Nothing in the IFN interview confirmed that Pereira will be in London. The offer was conditional, and the only fight on the contract is DeMoor against Cruz.
Cruz enters with a 0-0 boxing record at age 39, listed at 6-foot-1 and southpaw, against a 6-foot-5 orthodox champion. The coaching résumé is the reason the bout is being sold. DeMoor has already decided that résumé includes the fighter the coach made famous, and he has a line ready if Pereira is close enough to hear it.
