Ahead of UFC 295 tomorrow night, former two-time middleweight champion. Israel Adesanya has claimed division contenders should be thanking on their knees, for the impending light heavyweight run of Alex Pereira, claiming he more or less forced him out of the division.
Adesanya, a former two-time middleweight champion, most recently headlined UFC 293 back in September in Sydney, Australia, suffering a spectacular upset loss to common-foe, Sean Strickland in a unanimous decision defeat to the newly-minted champion.
The defeat as City Kickboxing staple, Adesanya’s second in a championship fight in the space of the year, having dropped his middleweight crown to Brazilian knockout artist, Pereira last November at Madison Square Garden.
In April of this year, Adesanya avenged his loss to the Sao Paulo striker, with a thunderous second round KO of his own, before Pereira would test light heavyweight waters in July, successfully.
Israel Adesanya claims he made Alex Pereira pursue a light heavyweight move
And according to Adesanya, ahead of Pereira’s title charge against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295 in ‘The Big Apple’, the former claims middleweight fighters should be thankful to him for Pereira’s 185 pound departure.
“These middleweights can get on their f*cking knees and thank me ‘cause I got this man [Alex Pereira] out of there [middleweight],” Israel Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “If not, you would have to deal with him over and over and over again, all of you.”
“I doubt any of you would want to f*cking fight this guy. I did four times but I got it done just with one,” Israel Adesanya explained.
Claiming himself that he would remain sidelined since his loss to Strickland until 2027 at the very earliest, Adesanya has since flirted with a return to the Octagon as soon as March of next year, after professional footballing star, Cristiano Ronaldo urged the Nigerian-Kiwi to fight at a UFC Saudi Arabia event next March.
Do you agree with Israel Adesanya’s take on Alex Pereira’s move to 205 pounds