"Hold on, you're forgetting, the score will be 0-3" - Chael Sonnen discusses if Israel Adesanya will get an immediate rematch if he loses to Alex Pereira

Israel Adesanya is set to clash against former kickboxing foe Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 281 at Madison Square Garden on November 12. After cleaning out the 185lbs division and emerging victorious in rematches against Robert Whittaker and Marvin Vettori, Adesanya looked forward to new blood in Jared Cannonier. However, he cruised to a unanimous decision victory in a title fight that left wants wanting.

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On the same card at UFC 276, No.4-ranked Sean Strickland faced the surging, unranked Brazilian Alex Pereira. 'Poatan' dispatched Strickland in the first round and was immediately matched up against the dominant middleweight champion. Both combatants have fought in kickboxing, with Pereira emerging victorious both times, first via unanimous decision and second via KO.

In a new episode of Beyond The Fight, former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen shared an interesting take on Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira at UFC 281. 'The Bad Guy' believes that should 'The Last Stylebender' lose at MSG, he may not get an immediate rematch. Although a champion as dominant as Adesanya would get one in most cases, Sonnen believes their history before the UFC will play in Pereira's favor to dismiss Adesanya's claim:

"If Adesanya loses to Pereira, history says the great who went down gets a rematch. Hold on, you're forgetting, that score will be 0-3... if Pereira was to bring this to everybody's attention and say 'I don't want to fight, I'm done with him... I've beaten him three times at the same thing'..."

Drawing comparisons to Valentina Shevchenko and Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Sonnen said:

"I'll give you a point of where this happened. It was 'The Bullet' vs. Joanna Jędrzejczyk and they had fought and 'The Bullet' got her and it was a very good, it was a very exciting match and I thought that Joanna had earned her way back... there was a backstory that they had kickboxed twice and that 'The Bullet' had won them both. That hurt Joanna."

Sonnen did note that they're different sports and wins in one sport should not carry over to the other but stated that Jędrzejczyk's previous losses to Shevchenko hurt her ability to get a rematch with 'The Bullet' in the UFC. Similarly, Alex Pereira could use his kickboxing wins to dismiss Israel Adesanya's want for an immediate rematch.

Watch the segment at 4:45 of the video below:

Revisiting Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira 1 & 2

'The Last Stylebender' and 'Poatan' have transitioned to mixed martial arts after extremely successful kickboxing careers. Both fighters competed for Glory Kickboxing, where they were matched against each other on two separate occasions.

Their first fight took place at Glory of Heroes 1 on April 2, 2016. Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira traded blows for all three rounds, and the judges scored a unanimous decision for Pereira.

Watch the fight below:

Their second encounter took place a year later at Glory of Heroes 15 on March 4, 2017. The fight saw Israel Adesanya largely get the better of Alex Pereira through most of the exchanges in the first two rounds. However, in the third round, Pereira landed a devastating hook that dropped Adesanya to the floor, knocking him out cold. This remains the Nigerian native's only KO loss in his extensive combat sports career.

Watch the fight below: