“It Wasn’t Really About the Punches”: 2 Months After Settling the Score Against Alex Pereira, Israel Adesanya Recalls the Final Moments of the Fight at UFC 287

Two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was waiting for the moment to finally defeat his arch-rival, Alex Pereira. When he finally did it at UFC 287, the two-time champion enjoyed every bit of it. He registered an impressive knockout to win his 7th title fight. Adesanya recently revealed what went through his mind during the closing stages of his fight in April.

The three losses against Alex Pereira before UFC 287 left Adesanya in a phase of self-doubt. He mentioned many times that it was never about the number of times he wins or loses against ‘Poatan’, but the fact that he wanted to prove that he has the ability to defeat the Brazilian.

Israel Adesanya reveals his thoughts on the closing stages of his UFC 287 fight

During his recent appearance on ‘The MMA Hour’, Adesanya told Ariel Helwani that the punches he landed Alex Pereira felt like nothing at all. Moreover, it wasn’t the strikes he threw at ‘Poatan’ that made him feel good. It was something else. ‘The Last Stylenbender’ said, “It felt like nothing. I know the punch hit but it wasn’t really about punches. It’s more [about] when I’m bounced off the cage.”

Israel Adesanya mentioned how he was finding it hard to land blows on Pereira. That’s when he decided to lure the Brazilian in towards himself, while also getting hurt in his leg. He added, “I was right there and I baited him. If Moses can’t go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Moses, and he hurt my leg.”

‘The Last Stylebender’ missed a couple of times before baiting Alex Pereira to land the knockout

Israel Adesanya mentioned that his decision to bait ‘Poatan’ came after the former champion learned about the fact that Izzy’s leg was hurting. Moreover, he failed to bait Pereira twice before landing the right hook that set up the combination for a knockout. Adesanya said, “He knows he’s hurting me so I was gonna bait him. Already twice before, I used the shell to try and bait him. He caught me with the first one. The second one, I missed with a hook and a right hand.”

However, it wasn’t so much about the punch that excited him. The momentum from bouncing off the cage to land the knockout was the most rememberable thing for Adesanya from the fight. “That [knocking out Pereira] felt like nothing. But what was cool was when I bounced off the cage. I remember the speed. I felt like a vortex,” said the two-time middleweight champion

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Adesanya would look for his next challenge after settling the score with Alex Pereira. The Brazilian already made his next decision, moving to the light heavyweight division to face veteran Jan Blachowicz. We will have to wait and see what awaits ‘The Last Stylebender’ in the future.

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