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Israel Adesanya was dethroned as the middleweight champion by Alex Pereira at UFC 281. Sean O'Malley recently revealed that he was surprised by the size of the new middleweight champion.
Speaking on his podcast, TimboSugarShow, the No.1-ranked bantamweight stated:
"The thing is, Izzy almost knocked him out at the end of the first, so everytime Izzy landed I was like 'oh, s**t, he's landing clean too', but Alex is so - how is he so big, dude? How the f**k's that dude - I feel like that would be like me walking around 175 and cutting down to 135. How does he do it? I don't get it."
He continued:
"Where does he cut - it doesn't look like at weigh-ins, he's so f**king sucked in. It doesn't look like 'oh, s**t'. It doesn't look that bad. I don't understand where that weight comes off. Does he just f**king take something off his body? His arm or something?"
Despite coming in at a lighter weight than Israel Adesanya, Alex Pereira looked noticeably larger than his opponent. His TKO win marked his third combat sports victory over Adesanya.
Watch Sean O'Malley discuss Alex Pereira's size against Israel Adesanya below (starting at the 7:37 mark):
Israel Adesanya discusses controversial stoppage at UFC 281
Israel Adesanya's fifth-round TKO loss to Alex Pereira did not come without controversy. Adesanya entered the final round ahead three rounds to one on all three judges' scorecards. While he wobbled, he was not downed when referee Marc Goddard stepped in. The former champion shared his thoughts on the controversial stoppage.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour, Adesanya stated:
"You reffed the Gastelum fight. You've seen where I can go to. You should have that kind of faith in me, and also you gave Kelvin Gastelum every chance after he got dropped the most in any title fight in the UFC's history. So I didn't get dropped, yeah I got wobbled, but I wobbled 'cause of my leg. You know, I got hit big shots but I wobbled 'cause of my leg."
Adesanya's TKO loss at UFC 281 was the first knockout loss of his mixed martial career. It was also his first mixed martial arts loss at middleweight. He will likely get a chance to recapture the middleweight title in Pereira's first title defense.
Watch Israel Adesanya's full comments on the controversial stoppage below:
