Israel Adesanya wants to fight Alex Pereira in the UFC.
Alex Pereira is just two fights into his UFC career, but Israel Adesanya thinks ‘Poatan’ might already be ready for a title shot.
During a recent appearance at a UFC press conference in Australia, Adesanya dismissed the notion that Pereira might be too inexperienced to fight for the middleweight title even if he defeats Sean Strickland at UFC 276.
“I look forward to either one of those fights. I don’t like this narrative of like, ‘Oh it’s too quick for [Alex Pereira].’ But look, Jiri [Prochazka] just fought for the belt and won the belt in his third fight in the UFC. I think Anderson [Silva] did it in the second fight. So that’s fine, he’s new to MMA. I’ve been in this game for a long time,” Adesanya told reporters ahead of his middleweight title defense against Jared Cannonier (h/t Sportskeeda).
Adesanya was knocked out by Pereira under the Glory banner in 2017 and ‘can’t wait’ to exact his revenge on the Brazilian in MMA.
‘The Last Stylebender’ was also beaten by Pereira at Glory of Heroes 1 but advised MMA fans to go and watch both fights before deciding who is the better kickboxer.
“This TikTok generation has 15-second memory so they forget. All they see is the knockout, but they didn’t watch the first fight or even watch the second fight before the finish. This is not kickboxing, this is mixed martial arts. And these ain’t big pillow gloves; these are four-ounce deadly weapons and I can’t wait to drive that to his face after I go through Jared Cannonier.”
UFC 276, which features Adesanya vs. Cannonier as the main event and Strickland vs. Pereira on the main card, takes place July 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.