Darren Till is flabbergasted by Alex Pereria’s threepeat over former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
‘The Gorilla’ returns to action on Saturday night as the UFC once again invades T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for UFC 282, the promotion’s final pay-per-view event of 2022. Dropping four of his last five bouts, Till will look to get back into the win column against budding middleweight contender, Dricus Du Plessis.
Ahead of his return to the Octagon, Darren Till spoke with MMA Junkie to discuss the potential rematch between newly crowned UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira and former titleholder Israel Adesanya. Pereira shocked the world at UFC 281, knocking out Adesanya in the fifth round of their highly-entertaining main event. The victory earned Pereira his first piece of UFC gold and a third consecutive win over ‘The Last Stylebender’ with the first two coming under the GLORY Kickboxing banner.
“I’ve watched all three fights and the two fights he (Adesanya) was just absolutely winning comfortably,” said Till. “Alex all three times just seems to from somewhere, I don’t know what it is whether he’s got Izzy’s number or what, gets the win and it’s quite terrifying for Izzy because can Izzy beat him? We’ve seen he can – well he can’t because in the fifth Alex got it back.”
Darren Till Does Not See a Different Outcome in Potential Rematch
While Darren Till believes a fourth fight is certainly warranted between the two, he simply doesn’t see Israel Adesanya walking out as the victor after failing to do so on three separate occasions.
“Is a fourth fight worth it? Yeah, you have to because Izzy was the champ for a long time and he was dominant, but Alex has beat him three times and it’s not like a wrestler vs. a striker. They’re both strikers. It’s very tough. I know I’ve lost a fight here and there but if you lose four fights to the same person… I think the fourth fight is warranted but at this point do I see Izzy beating Pereira? For some reason, because Pereira’s won the three fights, no I don’t.”
Both Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya have shared their desire to compete in an immediate rematch. When and where that takes place is yet to be determined, but barring any unforeseen circumstances, it looks as though that will be the next UFC middleweight title fight.
Former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, is set to have his charges dropped for possession of brass knuckles dropped should he stay out of trouble. It was announced on Tuesday that Adesanya would have his charge of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon dropped, as long as he does not get arrested in the county […]