Chael Sonnen explains why Israel Adesanya is a favorite over Alex Pereira despite his two losses

Chael Sonnen believes Israel Adesanya will successfully retain his middleweight championship and finally put his rivalry with Alex Pereira to bed.

On his YouTube channel, Sonnen explained why Adesanya is such a heavy favorite against his upcoming opponent. He mentioned that it's not fair to judge based on kickboxing fights that took place years ago and were contested under a different ruleset than MMA:

“A professional kickboxing fight in the MMA community might as well been an amateur event. We get amateurs that come over, Bo Nickal being a fine example. We don’t care if he lost a match somewhere. That was different, that was all preparation to get him here.”

'Poatan' defeated 'Izzy' twice in kickboxing, but the fights weren't dominant wins. Many have argued that Adesanya should have been awarded the decision in their first bout. In their second bout, 'Izzy' had Pereira in trouble on a number of occasions with his strikes and combinations. However, 'Poatan' landed a devastating left hook and the victory.

🇧🇷 Pereira KO’s Adesanya 🇳🇬 = 💣
⏱ Round 3 Knockout (0:42)
🇧🇷 Glory Of Heroes 7
🗓 4th March 2017
🏟 Ginásio do Ibirapuera
🎥: Glory Of Heroes https://t.co/A2EvHgF6ds

Adesanya's experience competing against the top middleweights in the UFC with the spotlight on him in the main event could be the deciding factor. 'Izzy' has defeated the likes of Paulo Costa, Marvin Vettori, Anderson Silva, and Robert Whittaker during his UFC middleweight title reign, and proven that he can adapt against varying skillsets.

Check out the full video:

Chael Sonnen gives his thoughts on who could be the next challenger if Adesanya retains

Chael Sonnen's prediction of Israel Adesanya being a heavy favorite could be correct. 'Izzy' may have lost to Alex Pereira in kickboxing, but he has a lot more experience as an MMA fighter than the challenger.

Sonnen added that he likes that Adesanya doesn't leave any speculation about who his next opponent is during his post-fight interview:

"One thing we get with Adesanya, before he leaves the ring he sets up his next fight. We don't go to the press conference wondering, we've never done that. We don't go into Sunday or even Monday morning wondering what's next. Not when it comes to Izzy, it's very unique. We wish everybody would do it, not everybody does."

'Izzy's former challengers Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa are scheduled to fight at UFC 284. Meanwhile, Adesanya's most recent opponents, Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland are scheduled to headline a UFC Fight Night event on December 17th.