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Israel Adesanya has taken a trip down memory lane to recall his infamous knockout loss to Alex Pereira.
While he's been the UFC middleweight champion for a few years now, that doesn't mean he hasn't faced some adversity. In addition to his defeat to Jan Blachowicz back at UFC 259 last year, he also suffered a few losses in his kickboxing career. Two of them came against UFC newcomer Alex Pereira.
In 2016, the Brazilian edged out a nice decision win over Adesanya. Then, less than twelve months later, he knocked Izzy out with a nasty left hook that many still replay to this day.
As he prepares to take on Robert Whittaker at UFC 271 this Saturday, Adesanya isn't bothered about answering questions regarding Alex Pereira and his future:
“I hope so [that he fights Pereira], my coaches don’t think so but I hope so, because that’s the kind of story I like - the guy who finished me in kickboxing, he comes to MMA to try and do the same thing, living off the same clout for the last ten years or whatever it was. I hope so. I just wanna implore you journalists to do your research before you start talking about that fight and taking too much stake in it. You need to look at the first fight, and look at what happened before the knockout in the second fight. I think a lot of you don’t even realise that I hurt him, and don’t realise why I didn’t stay true to my style and didn’t finish him in that fight. I implore you to do your research before you just watch the highlight at the end. Yeah, speak on it later on. He’s only had one fight in the UFC, calm your t*ts. Let him do some work, he’s a long way from seeing me.”
The UFC debut of Alex Pereira - what happened?
It's safe to say that Alex Pereira had to face some early adversity in his UFC debut, at Madison Square Garden during the UFC 268 event. Alas, despite a few concerns, he bounced back in the second round with a knockout that sent shockwaves through the middleweight division.
The 34-year-old isn't wasting any time. On March 12, he'll appear on a Fight Night card for his second fight inside the octagon.
HIs opponent is Bruno Silva, a fellow Brazilian who is riding a seven-fight win streak. All of those victories have come via knockout or TKO.
