King of Madison Square Garden: Intriguing statistic reveals UFC champ Alex Pereira has established himself as integral part of history at 'The Garden'

Alex Pereira's UFC 295 win over Jiri Prochazka last weekend is a lot more than just a light heavyweight title fight victory. In 11 professional MMA fights, ‘Poatan’ has become a champion in two separate divisions of the premier MMA organization.

He was also the middleweight and light heavyweight champion in Glory Kickboxing. This makes Pereira a unique talent that achieved double champion status in two different sports.

These are, however, not the only records Alex Pereira made on November 11. The 36-year-old has now become a significant part of the Iconic Madison Square Garden's history as well. Both of Pereira's UFC title fight wins came at the historic arena. MMA journalist Aaron Bronsteter recently revealed an interesting statistic related to these events.

In an ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) post, Bronsteter wrote:

“Alex Pereira has headlined two of the three highest grossing events [sporting or non] in the history of Madison Square Garden.”

See the post below:

Alex Pereira captured the UFC middleweight title in November 2022 when he defeated archrival Israel Adesanya via TKO at UFC 281 event that took place in the Madison Square Garden Arena. The event generated a whopping $11.6 million in live gate. Pereira’s UFC 295 showing against Jiri Prochazka on November 11, 2023, surpassed the previous event, generating a massive $12.4 million in live gate.

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Alex Pereira wants to settle the score with Israel Adesanya next

Alex Pereira was fast tracked to the UFC title shot due to his history with former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Pereira defeated ‘The Last Stylebender’ twice in their kickboxing days and scored a third win over the Nigerian-Kiwi fighter at UFC 281. However, Adesanya had the final laugh with a vicious knockout of Pereira in the UFC 287 rematch.

Although he is leading 3-1 in the fierce rivalry, Pereira expressed his desire to settle the score with Adesanya in the MMA realm. He called Adesanya out for a fight in his UFC 295 post-fight octagon interview and said:

“I know I’m not gonna do what he did to me. He made me fight three times to fight him in the middleweight division. I know a guy that has history with me. So I’m going to make this fight happen. Hey, Adesanya! Come to daddy!”

Watch the full octagon interview below:

Israel Adesanya has announced the decision to take an extended break from competition following his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293. Meanwhile, UFC CEO Dana White is favoring former 205 lbs champion Jamahall Hill as the next challenger to Pereira’s title.