Israel Adesanya finally got his much-awaited redemption against arch nemesis Alex Pereira at UFC 287.
The newly recrowned middleweight champion has chased an elusive victory against the Brazilian since their days at Glory Kickboxing, spanning over six years of professional combat sports.
Adesanya and Pereira first faced off in the octagon at UFC 281’s main event in 2022. Although ‘Izzy’ dominated proceedings and led the judges’ scorecards through four rounds of the bout, Pereira rallied in the fifth round to land some clean heavy strikes and a huge left hook that had Adesanya wobbled. It was then that referee Marc Goddard deemed Adesanya unfit to continue and stopped the fight.
However, after avenging his three losses at UFC 287, ‘The Last Stylebender’ took to Twitter to quote a video that included highlights from both their meetings in the octagon. The video contains highlights from the first round of the UFC 281 bout and showcases how close Adesanya was to knocking out ‘Poatan’.
In the clip, Pereira is seen reeling from multiple strikes, but is saved by the bell and avoids a certain knockout.
Check out the montage on Twitter below:
Israel Adesanya quoted the tweet and said:
“Pay attention. [memo emoji]”
Check out Adesanya’s tweet below:
Alex Pereira disagrees with ‘child’ Israel Adesanya mocking his son, says he wouldn’t do the same
Israel Adesanya’s celebrations after knocking out Alex Pereira have dominated the headlines since the two-time middleweight champion specifically targeted Pereira’s son who had mocked him after his Glory Kickboxing knockout loss.
However, Pereira stated that he would not resort to such actions if he were in Adesanya’s shoes. In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Pereira said:
“Honestly, I wouldn’t do the same. I can play with him like I’ve always played. I’ve teased him, but I don’t know, he’s another child. I don’t know what his feelings were. He was enduring this for seven years and I saw his joy after the knockout. That was his dream. That was his dream and he made it, but we’re comparing him with a child who was 5 years old at the time, right?”
‘Poatan’ also revealed that in the aftermath of his UFC 281 victory, he had prevented his son from mocking Israel Adesanya again. He explained that he felt strongly about being conscious of one’s actions.
Check out Alex Pereira’s comments on his YouTube channel: