Alex Pereira: Israel Adesanya and Poatan fought on the same fight card, at UFC 276. The Middleweight champion failed to impress the crowd, but Pereira gauged everyone’s attention. Through his dominant performance, he is looking for a title shot with Izzy. Follow UFC Live Updates and UFC news with InsideSport.IN
Alex Pereira: Poatan lobbying to fight his arch-rival Israel Adesanya and dethrone his title
Alex Pereira vs Israel Adesanya- Izzy stands as the undisputed middleweight champion with an undefeated streak in the division. He is revered as an Upcoming GOAT of UFC. The Nigerian has sprinted over his opponents and rose to fame when he defeated UFC’s longest title defense, raining champion Anderson Silva who was also his idol.
He had a massive kickboxing record before entering Professional MMA. However, Alex Pereira stands as the only person in the combat universe to have knocked down Israel Adesanya. Izzy has suffered multiple losses to Pereira, first via a unanimous decision and second via a 3 round knockout.
Alex Pereira has entered UFC and competes in Adesanya’s division and is viewed as a potential threat to Izzy’s title.
The last style bender dominated UFC 276, however, fans have declared the Middleweight champion as boring and the masses were witnessed walking out of teh stadium while the match was happening. On the other hand in the sam fight card, Alex Pereira knocked down Sean Strickland and yearned the hearts of the audience.
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Poatan has noted this as a potential opportunity nad has started vouching for his title shot with the last style bender.
“I was there [cageside] and saw the fight, and I say it didn’t impress me,” Pereira said on this week’s episode of MMA Fighting podcast Trocação Franca. “It didn’t excite me nor the fans. There’s video of lines of people leaving the arena after the fourth round. People pay expensive tickets and they want to stay until the last minute to see who’s the champion and see him getting his hands raised. For people to act like that it’s because it wasn’t exciting.”
“Of course, he’d never give me props, but what he thinks or doesn’t think doesn’t change a thing to me,” Pereira said. “You have to ask him if he was impressed when I knocked him out. Was he not impressed? If he wasn’t, he’s sick. If he was impressed in his own fight [at UFC 276], that’s good enough to me.”
“I’ll tell you this, I think he’s giving his all in his fights but sometimes his all isn’t just to attack, it’s about the defense, because that’s the toughest part,” Pereira said. “What he does is the toughest part, to defend yourself. He’s a complete guy. You see, grapplers who fought him didn’t do well because he’s different, he’s good.
“But what he’s doing, do you think — just like my fight, I had the opportunity to KO [Strickland], but said [before the fight] I wanted to fight three rounds. He went down, the referee didn’t stop it, am I going to let him get back up? Of course not. I’ll give my all there, and that’s what he’s doing, that’s what he’s been able to do.
“You think he wouldn’t KO the guy if he could? ‘Oh, I’m going to make it look like an easy fight.’ You think he didn’t want [to KO him]? Of course he did, but the other guy didn’t let him do it. He’s giving his best in there. There’s no way, you can’t control it. What he’s doing there is his best. Who doesn’t want [a KO]? If you can have the power to retain the title by submission or knockout, who wouldn’t want that?”
“Poatan” doesn’t believe the highly anticipated clash would do poorly in terms of pay-per-view sales after the champion’s recent lackluster performances because UFC fans will always “give [fighters] another chance” and eventually tune in. Also, he’s sure there’s no way this trilogy isn’t exciting.
“People are watching [my UFC fights] and they know it’s going to be a good fight,” he said. “People saw my fights with him and how it went. Even the first one, I didn’t win by knockout, it was by points, but it was a fight that excited everybody. It’s going to be a great fight, man.”
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