The highly anticipated rematch between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira is less than a week away. ‘The Last Stylebender’ is determined to overcome his most formidable rival at UFC 287. However, he is not underestimating ‘Poatan’ as he mentions what surprised him about Pereira from their last bout in a recent interview.

Israel Adesanya reached the top of the middleweight division relatively quickly since debuting in the UFC. He was the middleweight champion for over three years before losing the title to Brazilian ace Alex Pereira at UFC 281. However, there are certain things about Pereira that Adesanya didn’t expect.

Israel Adesanya mentions what surprised him about Alex Pereira in their last fight

The former middleweight champion appeared in an interview with ESPN and talked about ‘Poatan’s recovery skills. He said, “He [Pereira] recovers very well. That’s something that definitely [I] didn’t expect was his recovery.” Adesanya added, “I put the beating on him, I hurt him, got him tired. But he recovered very well and was able to close the show.”

He mentioned that is one learning curve he had from his UFC 281 bout. “That’s something I can definitely take away from the last fight in our first four rounds,” said the former champion. Adesanya dominated the whole fight at UFC 281 until the last round, when he lost suffered a TKO loss.

Adesanya shares his thoughts on what ‘Poatan’ would look to improve in his fight game

When the Kiwi fighter was asked about what he thinks Pereira will try to improve for the UFC 287 bout. He said, “I’m sure they [Pereira’s training camp] work on their takedown defense. I am sure they worked on, you know, their wrestling and also their striking, because that’s what they’re good at.”

Israel Adesanya believes that the Brazilian champion has a good team to help him and even has the UFC legend Glover Teixeira in his corner. “They’re a good team. They have good, like Glover [Texeira] on their side. So yeah, I am sure they are taking care of all their bases.” 

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Alex Pereira would surely have the advantage of having Glover Teixeira in his corner. However, Israel Adesanya has shown his ability to dominate the fight in the early rounds of a fight. Both fighters are wary of each other’s strengths and weaknesses after facing each other three times in their professional fighting career.

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