Rematch Saturday. Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira will meet again for the UFC middleweight belt early Saturday morning (04:00, Eurosport) at the Miami-Dade Arena. Last November, the brazilian snatched the title the New Zealander by TKO in the fifth round. They had already met twice in kickboxing before, where Pereira also took the victory. It is time for Adesanya to take revenge and win once and for all black beast.
It was not the first time that Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira faced each other in the Octagon. They had already fought when they were practicing kickboxing, and the brazilian won both games. The first by unanimous decision and revenge for KO in the third round. The time has come to face each other again, but this time in MMA. Pereira accused him of not wanting to fight with him for fearand Adesanya took it personally.
Adesanya was the UFC middleweight champion. He was coming off a successful defense in July against Jared Cannonier. The New Zealander prevailed by unanimous decision in a fight in which he was far superior. He didn’t give her any trouble. But his reign would end in November, when he got back in the cage with Pereira. At UFC 281, the Brazilian won by TKO in the fifth round against his well-known rival, and gave the big surprise. The lawsuit was even. Adesanya started strong, throwing low kicks and striking more fluently. Pereira managed to push him back against the wall, something not often seen in the New Zealander’s fights. In the third round, Adesanya managed to take the fight to the ground and do damagehad good grappling control. But this tired him, and Pereira took the opportunity to turn the situation around and knock him out with a series of blows.
Few bet on the victory of the Brazilian, who prevailed again against Adesanya and was proclaimed UFC middleweight champion. A great merit of the new champion, who he has much less experience in MMA and has shown that it is at the level of the big names in the competition. At dawn on Saturday, his fourth fight will arrive, the second in mixed martial arts. The expectations are high.