“There’s one thing he’s really good at. It’s that left hook and that’s what he catches many people with.”
Israel Adesanya is not intimidated by Alex Pereira in the slightest.
‘The Last Stylebender’ might be 0-2 against ‘Poatan’ in kickboxing, but he doesn’t think the latter poses much of a threat in MMA, rating Pereira only a six on the ‘threat meter’ due to how one-dimensional of a fighter he is.
Adesanya was knocked out by Pereira at Glory Heroes of 7 but claims their rematch at UFC 281 will be a completely different story, hinting that he already has a strategy in place to defeat the Brazilian on Nov. 12.
“Threat meter, to be honest, as an MMA fighter… I’ll give him a six, if I’m being honest…Completely honest: threat meter six,” Adesanya told Combat TV ahead of his title defense against Pereira (h/t Sportskeeda). “There’s one thing he’s really good at. It’s that left hook and that’s what he catches many people with. He’s not going to catch me with a flying knee.”
“Left hook, that’s the main thing to look forward to… Yeah, if I can take care of that, I can take care of everything else.”
The only man to stop Israel Adesanya is now in the UFC.
Alex Pereira knocked out the middleweight champ in the Stylebender’s last kickboxing match.
Poatan makes his MMA debut at UFC 268 pic.twitter.com/4qLis4dndm
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) September 9, 2021
UFC 281: Adesanya vs. Pereira will see Adesanya put his middleweight title on the line in a five-round main event at New York’s Madison Square Garden on November 12, 2022.