Israel Adesanya will look to extract his revenge and reclaim the UFC middleweight title when he faces Alex Pereira at UFC 287. UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Paul Felder discussed the upcoming title fight during the latter’s recent appearance on episode #135 of The Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show.
Rogan began by discussing the peroneal nerve injury that limited Adesanya throughout UFC 281. The podcast host then shared that while he is interested in seeing what adjustments ‘The Last Stylebender’ makes at UFC 287, he is even more intrigued by seeing the current middleweight champion against someone with high-class wrestling ability. Felder responded:
“It’s kind of working out perfectly for Alex where you get another shot. You get to go and face Israel again. That’s the best matchup for you. You got a guy that is probably going to stand with you for as long as the fight lasts. When he’s really going to get challenged is when he has somebody that’s going to say, ‘I’m going to grapple your a**, I’m gonna pressure you up against the fence’.”
After looking at the scorecard, where Adesanya had a three round to one advantage, Rogan proclaimed that all he had to do was not get caught before adding:
“I’m very interested in the rematch. Very interested because you got to think, Izzy almost had him out in the first round. He almost had him out. If he can avoid getting that leg compromised like he did in the first round of that fight and so he’s got his movement, and he also had some great moments grappling which surprised a lot of people.”
While Adesanya has lost all three of his previous meetings with Pereira, two of which came in kickboxing, he has opened as the favorite for their UFC 287 title clash.
Watch Joe Rogan and Paul Felder discuss Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira 2 below: