How do you know Israel Adesanya loved watching WWE? At UFC 276, the former two-time middleweight champion walked out to The Undertaker’s theme before facing Jared Cannonier, which displayed his admiration for pro wrestling. Coincidentally, ‘The Last Stylebender’ got to meet one of his WWE childhood heroes at a post-fight presser, who praised him for his performance. However, that veteran figure has a different view on his rematch with Alex Pereira. 

The legend in question is former five-time WWE champion Booker T. When Israel Adesanya first met the pro wrestling icon at the UFC 271 presser, Adesanya said he’s one of his childhood inspirations. In the same way, Booker T remained positive about Adesanya’s greatness inside the cage, even calling him the ‘Muhammad Ali of UFC’.  But, when it comes to Nigerian-Kiwi’s battle against eternal rival Alex Pereira at UFC 287, the WWE icon’s views were a little different. 

“That Pereira fight, just go back and look at that fight,” Booker T said in an Instagram video. “Man, Pereira was winning that fight. Pereira was actually touching Izzy up to the point where he was getting ready to finish him, and he got caught. He just got too comfortable and got caught with a big shot. But Izzy was lucky to pull that one out, because it could’ve really been a downhill spiral for Izzy if he had won that fight,” he added. 

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To be fair, Israel Adesanya looked sharp in both fights against Pereira. The first fight at UFC 281 was highly competitive until the Brazilian found that cracking left hook that broke ‘The Last Stylebender’s’ chin in the final round. We saw the same competitive action at the UFC 287 rematch, where Pereira landed 49 significant strikes, while Adesanya answered with 41 in only 10 minutes of cage time. So there wasn’t much difference in volume. 

However, what Booker T might be signaling is the impact of Pereira’s shots. Whenever ‘Poatan’ was landing, he got a reaction out of Adesanya. And it was quite visible when they were trading blows. Even before Adesanya found that money right hand in the second round, the Brazilian was landing knees and left hooks against the fence. At least for a moment, Pereira’s flurry created the threat of another possible knockout, until Adesanya countered him with a four-punch combo. 

In that sense, Booker T isn’t completely wrong to imply that Adesanya got a bit lucky. But since the fight was statistically competitive, other than a particular sequence from Pereira, we can also say that the Nigerian-Kiwi had some plan going in.  

Now, while the WWE legend claims the former champ’s night could have gone very differently, another UFC figure believes ‘Izzy’s win was straight out of a Hollywood movie.

Joe Rogan believes Israel Adesanya’s win over Alex Pereira was out of a Hollywood movie

It’s not a secret that Joe Rogan absolutely adores Israel Adesanya’s fighting style. The UFC color commentator has watched ‘The Last Stylebender’s’ career turn legendary and even lent his voice from the commentary booth. But the night the Lagos native finally avenged his string of losses against Alex Pereira in Miami, Joe Rogan felt the entire moment was straight out of a movie.

After knocking Pereira out cold, Adesanya grabbed the mic from Joe Rogan and gave a legendary post-fight interview about how great it felt to finally get his revenge. Rogan later said the moment gave him chills, joking that Izzy’s speech was so perfect it sounded like a team of 15 Hollywood writers put it together.

“It sounds like 15 writers sat in a room and came up with the lines,” Rogan said in a podcast episode with Deric Poston last year. “I didn’t even ask him; I should ask him next time I talk to him. I bet that just came right out in the moment, just right there. It was a perfect event for him… You couldn’t script that better in a movie. To see him (Pereira) flattened out cold.” 

That said, while it remains a fact that Adesanya came out victorious against Pereira in the rematch, do you believe it was luck or the proper execution of a well-thought-out plan?