Undisputed UFC middleweight champion, Alex Pereira has hinted at an impending passing for former division kingpin, Israel Adesanya during their UFC 287 grudge title rematch next month – posting the Nigerian-Kiwi’s date of birth, and apparant date of death at the pay-per-view event as part of a caption on recent sparring footage.
Pereira, the undisputed UFC middleweight champion, is set to headline UFC 287 on April 7. at the Miami-Dade Center in Miami, Florida – clashing with former undisputed titleholder, Adesanya in the pair’s fourth clash across combat sports.
In November of last year, the Sao Paulo striking phenom headlined a Madison Square Garden matchup against Adesanya, rallying from losing scorecards to stop the defending champion with a fifth round barrage of strikes at the fence en route to a TKO victory.
Handing Adesanya his first professional mixed martial arts loss at the middleweight limit, Alex Pereira, a former two-weight GLORY Kickboxing champion to boot, landed gold inside four fights in the UFC following wins over Andreas Michailidis, Bruno Silva, and Sean Strickland.
Alex Pereira alludes to Israel Adesanya’s passing in morbid message
Sharing some frightening sparring footage ahead of his return next month, Alex Pereira shared video of him brutalizing a training partner, with the caption of Adesanya’s birthday – July 22. 1989, as well as a coffin emoji – accompanied with the date of UFC 287 – April 8. 2023
Alex Pereira sparring
pic.twitter.com/jnmWiavgT9
— Brock’s Load (@_MMAMindset) March 6, 2023
Himself predicting a resounding win over Brazilian striker, Pereira next month in the ‘Sunshine State’ – Adesanya claimed recently that he needed to defeat the former, and that scores between the two need to be settled rather than kept.
“Just keep the same energy because I’m always beating him until I’m not,” Israel Adesanya explained. “So, I’m just going to make sure I keep beating him the whole way through.”
“I go in there and I don’t overthink,” Israel Adesanya continued. “I’m not gun shy. I go in there and trade with people, especially with him as well, so expect me to do what I do. Like I said, I have to talk because you guys want me to talk, but say less and I’ll do more. I promise you, I’ll do more in this fight.”