This storyline starts back in 2016, Israel Adesanya was set to take on Alex Pereira in a kickboxing bout. The fight was close, but Pereira emerged victorious via unanimous decision, 1-0.
Fast forward a year Adesanya is set to rematch Pereira, this time in Brazil. Alex Pereira turns on the gas and lands his devastating left hook in the third round to turn Izzy’s lights out, 2-0.
In February 2018, Adesanya joins the UFC in search of a different career move. He beats Rob Wilkinson in his debut in the organisation in an impressive second-round stoppage.
Following this win, Izzy goes on to win 5 fights in a row to set up a title fight against Robert Whittaker where he makes short work of the native Aussie.
As UFC middleweight champion, Adesanya goes on to become one of the most decorated champions in middleweight history beating challenger after challenger, no one looks close to beating The Last Stylebender.
In 2020, an interview of Israel Adesanya with Sporting News Australia was released. In this interview, Adesanya said this about former foe Alex Pereira “He watches all my fights, and every time I fight, like clockwork, he’d try to put something out like, ‘I beat this guy, At the end of the day, no one knows who the f*** he is, and he’s going to be that guy when I’m world champion, when I’m a legend, he’s going to be at some pub talking sh*t about, ‘I beat that guy one time.”
Alex Pereira responded to this interview by saying “I felt challenged and whenever there’s a challenge, no one can hold me back. I wanted new challenges, and the UFC was it.”
That was it, Pereira made his UFC debut in November 2021 against Andreas Michailidis and then followed it up with a decision win over Bruno Silva just four months later.
Alex Pereira was matched up with Sean Strickland at UFC 276, the undercard of Israel Adesanya’s title defence against Jared Cannonier. Pereira threw with bad intentions against Strickland who couldn’t deal with the power of Pereira who got
the finish in the very first round.
And with that, UFC 281’s main event was made: Israel Adesanya vs Alex Pereira and we all know what followed. A dominant display from Izzy, near perfect from the champ, however, he was unable to escape Pereira’s left hook which landed in the final round and all of a sudden, 3-0.
Will Adesanya get his revenge on his enemy, will Pereira make it 4-0? All of these questions will be answered on Saturday night.
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