Only Fighter to Knockout Israel Adesanya Believes the UFC Champ Wouldn’t Fight Him Again
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Alex Pereira is an accomplished kickboxer and the current GLORY middleweight champion. Moreover, Pereira is the only combat sports athlete who has ever knocked out Israel Adesanya. While the UFC middleweight champ is on a hot streak right now, ‘Po Atan’ still believes he wouldn’t want to fight him for the third time.
Pereira squared off against Adesanya for the first time in 2016 and came out on top via a unanimous decision. The two met once again in 2017 at Glory of Heroes 7 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. However, the outcome was still the same for Adesanya, albeit the manner in which it came was a lot more brutal.
That kickboxing contest remains the only instance where ‘The Last Stylebender’ was on the receiving end of a knockout. After the fight, he switched his focus exclusively to mixed martial arts where he is now among the best in the world.
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Despite having fought under MMA rules only thrice, there is always speculation regarding the 33-year-old Pereira pursuing MMA full-time. While he doesn’t dismiss the possibility of the same, he isn’t very optimistic about a fight with Adesanya.
“I do train MMA and the ground game, but of course my priority is my striking as I’m a champion in the best Kickboxing organization in the world and I need to be at the top of my game. Training MMA actually helps a bit with that,” Pereira said in an exclusive interview with BJPenn.com
“I don’t think Adesanya would be interested in that fight. I beat him twice and I’m the only man to KO him. We never know what the future holds. It could happen someday.”
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Alex Pereira thinks Israel Adesanya was a bad match-up for Paulo Costa
Adesanya’s last outing resulted in a lop-sided win for him over challenger Paulo Costa. Alex Pereira gave his former opponent the credit for dismantling Costa. However, he believed that the Nigerian-born Kiwi was a tough stylistic pairing for ‘Borrachinha’.
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“Even before Adesanya fought ‘Borrachinha’ I said in interviews, it’d be a tough fight. I fought Adesanya twice and I know how dangerous he is. He’s tough, very smart, agile, a complete fighter as a kickboxer, and in MMA. Paulo had been doing a great job so far in his career and could win that fight, but it was a bad style matchup for him. He needed to do some changes,” Pereira said through his manager/interpreter Matheus Aquino.
Pereira’s contract with GLORY allows him to compete twice a year with LFA, which is a UFC feeder league. Currently, his gaze is fixed upon unifying the GLORY light heavyweight title against Artem Vakhitov. However, UFC fans would love to see how his talents stack up in the promotion, given his record against Adesanya.
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