"You can't make me play this game" - Kamaru Usman goes off on Israel Adesanya for avoiding fifth Alex Pereira fight
Kamaru Usman recently went off on Israel Adesanya for not pursuing a fifth fight with Alex Pereira despite public interest. He noted that 'The Last Stylebender' should have challenged 'Poatan' again for bragging rights in MMA.
Adesanya and Pereira famously competed twice in kickboxing, where the Brazilian earned victories on both occasions. Then, they carried their rivalry over to MMA, which saw Pereira dethrone Adesanya to capture the UFC middleweight championship before the Nigerian-born Kiwi regained the title via knockout in their rematch.
During his latest appearance on Usman and Henry Cejudo's Pound 4 Pound podcast, the former welterweight champion pressed Adesanya for not fighting Pereira for a fifth time. The longtime friends had some friendly banter as the former middleweight champion was content with his win over Pereira.
'The Nigerian Nightmare' responded by mentioning that he can't pursue rivalries and then stop just because he finally won. He said:
"It's not fair. It's not fair. You can't make me play this game four or five times and then when you finally beat me, you're like, 'I'm done. I'm done'. That's why [fans] would be like that."
Check out Kamaru Usman's comments below (34:37):
Israel Adesanya opens up about fighting Alex Pereira
Israel Adesanya also opened up about what it was like fighting Alex Pereira both in kickboxing and the UFC.
During the aforementioned appearance, Adesanya noted that he and Pereira were aware of how difficult of a matchup they would be for each other. He mentioned that another bout against Pereira wouldn't be logical because of the potential narrative should he earn another win:
"[Pereira's] a hard fight. He knows I'm a hard fight. I'm not scared to fight the guy, it's just it's a hard fight and whenever I fight him, I know that I'm in for it and he knows the same thing. So I finally got what I needed to get from that saga and if I beat him now, what are [detractors] gonna say, 'Actually, it's 3-2'... They'll make up some new sh*t." [35:01]
Check out Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira's backstage interaction following UFC 287 below: