Even with a victory over longtime rival Alex Pereira, reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya just can’t seem to shake the Brazilian boogeyman. “The Last Stylebender” recently crossed paths with “Poatan” at the same airport and captured the encounter on video (embedded above).
Pereira eventually caught up to his former kickboxing foe and recorded his own footage:
Guess who I met at the airport ? pic.twitter.com/c2xr4MAVUs
— Alex “Poatan” Pereira (@AlexPereiraUFC) May 29, 2023
Lil’ Alex Volkanovski in the back ready to shoot a double if needed.
Following a one-sided rivalry on the kickboxing circuit, Adesanya avenged his UFC 281 loss to Pereira by stopping “Poatan” at UFC 287 in Miami. “The Last Stylebender” will move on to face the winner of this fight at UFC 293 while Pereira will jump to light heavyweight to collide with former champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 in Salt Lake City.
A third fight in UFC (fifth overall) between Adesanya and Pereira looks unlikely for now, but depending on how they perform moving forward, a potential rubber match could present itself somewhere down the road.
Hopefully in the cage and not in the United lounge.