Alex Pereira recently weighed in on the possibility of facing Israel Adesanya for the fourth time after their upcoming rematch at UFC 287 this weekend in Miami. The hard-hitting Brazilian has faced Adesanya thrice in combat sports, beating the Nigerian-born Kiwi on all three occasions.
Alex Pereira’s Thoughts on Facing Israel Adesanya
Pereira scored an incredible comeback fifth-round TKO victory to become the new UFC middleweight champion at UFC 281 in November 2022. It marked ‘Poatan’s third win over ‘The Last Stylebender’ as the two previously fought twice in kickboxing, with Pereira winning once by knockout and once by decision.
Due to the nature of Pereira’s unexpected last-round win over Israel Adesanya, many within the MMA community felt that a rematch between the two long-time rivals was in order. Ahead of their highly-anticipated rematch, Pereira recently made it clear that this will be the last time they face each other in the cage. In a recent UFC 287 presser, ‘Poatan’ stated:
“I believe that me beating him this Saturday, I will never face him again.”
Alex Pereira is also going into this weekend fully confident of a victory and claimed he knows how to defeat Israel Adesanya. He declared:
““I do know how to beat him. I know how he fights, I know how he works, so I do know how to beat him.”
Sean O’Malley’s Prediction for the Rematch
Sean O’Malley recently weighed in on the highly-anticipated rematch between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira at UFC 287. The top-ranked bantamweight contender is backing ‘The Last Stylebender’ to finally beat his longtime rival using his wrestling skillset.
In a recent episode of TimboSugarShow, O’Malley claimed that he believes Adesanya doesn’t need all that much to get his redemption win over Pereira. He stated:
“I think he’s [Israel Adesanya] going to come out and wrestle… A couple of maybe good takedowns, come out, wrestle, put him on his back, really get him thinking. Maybe [Pereira] won’t be able to march forward as much. Who knows? You never f****** know. Some people have really good little things that they show in the gym that’s never really been done in a fight.”
While Israel Adesanya had some success grappling with Pereira in their first MMA fight, he also did well on his feet prior to being finished. He managed to badly hurt the Brazilian at the end of the first screen, but was ultimately unable to follow up before the round ended.
