“Cleared the way for him” – Israel Adesanya believes Alex Pereira owes his success in MMA to him
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Israel Adesanya (L), Alex Pereira (R)
Israel Adesanya takes on Alex Pereira in what is, no doubt going to be a clash of the middleweight titans in a few days’ time. And what better place to house the clash than New York City?
After the second Robert Whittaker fight, Israel Adesanya looked indomitable – there didn’t seem to be anyone who could mount any sort of a serious challenge against the Nigerian-Kiwi fighter. And, that was a bummer for us fight fans – as much as we like dominant champions, there is always the threat of the division becoming stale at its head because of the lack of exchange of the belt.
Now, it seems like Alex Pereira has stepped up to the plate to be a likely candidate to expel Adesanya from the 185-pound throne. Firstly, Pereira is bigger than Adesanya. Secondly, he also comes from the same background as him – that is, kickboxing. And, the skillset has come in handy for him till now, as he has knocked two out of his three UFC opponents out.
Israel Adesanya, now, has issued a statement, taking credit for the Brazilian’s quick route to the title shot at UFC 281. He said, “Without me, he wouldn’t be here. Without me, he would’ve been exposed a long time ago. I cleared the way. I cleared the division, so there was not really anyone else to fight. I cleared the way for him to get to the top.”
Israel Adesanya has a personal vendetta to clear against Alex Pereira
For those who didn’t know, Israel Adesanya was previously defeated under the GLORY banner in kickboxing, before making his way to the UFC. Therein, he was defeated twice by Alex Pereira. The second outing ended in a more brutal fashion, with the Brazilian knocking Adesanya out stiff.
Needless to say, winning is very important for Adesanya, who looks to clear his legacy. He said, “It’s personal. This is about me and my legacy. This is about re-writing history even though it is history and I never chased this. This is about me re-writing a new path in history and just showing people what I can really do, because, again, you all must have forgot.“
With fighting words from Adesanya and all the training-mockery videos from Pereira, it seems as if tensions are already running high. Expect UFC 281’s main event to be a fight for the ages. The question to be asked is whether we could we seeing Dana White wrapping the belt around a new face after three years.
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Udayan Mukherjee
(382 Articles Published)