"He's kind of lying to himself" - Alex Pereira reacts to Israel Adesanya's views on their kickboxing fights
Former two-division Glory kickboxing champion Alex Pereira strongly disagrees with Israel Adesanya’s opinion regarding their pair of kickboxing matches. 'Poatan' defeated ‘The Last Stylebender’ via unanimous decision in 2016. He also beat Adesanya via third-round KO in their rematch in 2017.
Adesanya and his coaches, including world-renowned CKB (City Kickboxing) head coach Eugene Bareman, have consistently maintained that the Nigeria-born Kiwi should’ve been awarded the decision in the first fight. They've also claimed that Adesanya was dominating the rematch.
Nevertheless, they’ve admitted that Adesanya’s reckless pursuit of the knockout in the rematch allowed Pereira to counter and KO him. Additionally, Adesanya believes he had an “off night” against Pereira but has “matured from that fight” and knows he'll beat ’Poatan'.
The only man to stop Israel Adesanya is now in the UFC.
Alex Pereira knocked out the middleweight champ in the Stylebender's last kickboxing match.
Poatan makes his MMA debut at UFC 268 🔥 https://t.co/4qLis4dndm
In the latest edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Alex Pereira responded to Israel Adesanya’s views by citing his (Pereira’s) teammate Glover Teixeira’s UFC light heavyweight title fight.
He recalled Teixeira beating his opponent Jiri Prochazka on the scorecards before shockingly being submitted and losing in the fifth and final round at UFC 275 last month. Drawing parallels between that fight and his rematch with Adesanya, Pereira stated:
“Well, he’s kind of lying to himself, so he can boost his motivation. You watch the fight. Yeah, he had his good and bad moments. But we fought under the kickboxing rules, I knocked him out.”
'Poatan' further added:
“So, it’s the same like Glover, for example. He was winning his last fight, right? Or every round, in my opinion. But he lost the fight. Now, he’s gonna have an opportunity to prove that he’s better than the other guy. I knocked him [Adesanya] out, right? I won that fight. So now, he’s gonna have a third opportunity to try to prove that he’s better than me.”
Watch Pereira discuss the topic at 14:15 in the video below:
Israel Adesanya outlines how his trilogy fight with Alex Pereira will play out
The consensus is that UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will likely defend his belt against Alex Pereira next. The potential matchup will mark the first time they clash in an MMA bout, having previously fought one another only in kickboxing.
Israel Adesanya recently posted a video to his ‘FREESTYLEBENDER’ YouTube channel, revealing how he visualizes their trilogy fight playing out. Suggesting that he’ll secure a stoppage victory over Pereira and bask in the glory of his success, Adesanya said:
"I don't think you understand how many times I've visualized this, and I know exactly what I'm gonna do as well. Even if the referee tries to take me off, I'm gonna tell him let me have my moment.”
Watch Adesanya’s video below: