UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is relishing the chance to avenge his two kickboxing defeats to Alex Pereira.
Adesanya and Pereira first met in 2016 when the Brazilian earned a decision win against the soon-to-be middleweight champion. The pair met again just over a year later, with Pereira brutally knocking his rival out by way of his trademark left hook.
Switching between MMA and kickboxing at the time of the loss, Adesanya never fought again in kickboxing after the brutal defeat. He was already 10-0 in MMA and signed for the UFC the following year, whilst Pereira only made his UFC debut last November.
Both men are scheduled to compete at UFC 276 next weekend, which is the promotion's biggest card of the year, as Adesanya defends his title against Jared Cannonier whilst Pereira faces fellow top middleweight Sean Strickland.
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Adesanya has vowed a trilogy between him and Pereira would end very differently, stating at a recent UFC press conference: "This isn’t kickboxing, this is mixed martial arts. These ain’t big pillow gloves, these are four ounce deadly weapons that I can’t wait to drive through his face after I go through Jared Cannonier.”
The winner of Pereira and Strickland's upcoming fight could receive the next shot at the 185lb title. Adesanya has dismissed talk of Pereira being rushed into a title shot and looks forward to facing either him or Strickland if he can get past Cannonier.
“I look forward to either one of those fights,” Adesanya continued. “I don’t like this narrative of, ‘It’s too quick, it’s too quick for Pereira,’ but look, Jiri [Prochazka] just fought for and won the belt in his third fight in the UFC.
"Anderson [Silva] did it in his second fight. So that’s fine, he’s new to MMA. I’ve been in this game a long time and this TikTok generation has a 15-second memory. All they see is a knockout, but they don’t watch the first fight, or the second fight before the finish.”
Adesanya won the 185lb title by knocking out Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 in 2019. 'The Last Stylebender' has since made four defences of his belt but also suffered his first MMA loss against light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz during that run.
Pereira knocked out Andreas Michailidis with a stunning flying knee in his promotional debut at Madison Square Garden. He was taking the distance for the first time in six MMA fights in his next outing, winning a decision against Bruno Silva in March.
