Ciryl Gane adds Artem Vakhitov, the man who beat Alex Pereira in kickboxing, to his White House camp

The buildup to UFC Freedom 250, a championship doubleheader staged on the White House South Lawn on June 14, has taken a specific tactical angle. In the co-main event, Alex Pereira will challenge Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title, a fight that carries broader title-picture weight because Pereira is pursuing a rare sweep across divisions.

According to coverage of Gane’s camp, the French heavyweight has called on Artem Vakhitov, a kickboxing veteran who previously defeated Pereira when both were competing under the Glory banner. Sherdog reported that Gane has been training with Vakhitov ahead of the White House fight, framing it as a targeted attempt to gain insight from someone who has already solved Pereira’s striking in a kickboxing setting.

The choice is notable because Vakhitov is not just a sparring body with a similar background. Sherdog wrote that Vakhitov beat Pereira via majority decision at Glory 78, and Sports Illustrated described the pairing as bringing in a fighter with direct, personal experience against Pereira’s feet, including two meetings in Glory. Sports Illustrated also linked the camp update to sparring footage posted ahead of the event, emphasizing the practical purpose of preparation.

Pereira’s camp response has been less interested in the symbolism. Boxingnews reported that Pereira dismissed the move, saying it makes no difference because kickboxing and MMA are different sports and because he is not the same fighter who faced Vakhitov in their kickboxing matches. In the same report, Pereira suggested that if Vakhitov is honest, the key message would be a caution about Gane’s toughness.

For Gane, the stakes are both athletic and procedural. CBS Sports’ event preview tied the interim heavyweight title bout to the next step in the division, writing that a win would put Gane back in position for undisputed heavyweight glory. It also described a matchup built on striking rather than wrestling, which matters because the “insight” Gane is seeking from Vakhitov is, by design, about how Pereira attacks and defends when the fight stays on the feet.

What to watch next is how the history gets translated. Kickboxing does not map cleanly onto MMA, but Vakhitov’s perspective can still shape Gane’s timing, distance, and counterplanning, especially if Pereira is willing to stay in his preferred rhythm. With Pereira trying to add another championship achievement and Gane trying to close the gap to undisputed contention, the White House setting amplifies how quickly small strategic errors could become decisive in a sport where stand-up advantages often compound.