Alex
Pereira all but assured himself of a middleweight title shot
with his first-round knockout of Sean
Strickland at UFC
276.
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While the former two-division Glory champion had a breakout
performance on the biggest stage of his MMA career to date,
reigning 185-pound king Israel
Adesanya did not draw rave reviews for his five-round verdict
over Jared
Cannonier in the evening’s headliner.
“It did not excite me, and it did not excite the crowd,” Pereira
said at the UFC 276 post-fight press conference. “I was very sad to
see that. I hope when we fight he do a better fight than that. But
for sure I am going make him fight to give it a better show to the
crowd.”
While Pereira has just three UFC victories to his credit, his two
victories over Adesanya in professional kickboxing have made a
showdown between the rivals a logical next step in the middleweight
championship picture. Adesanya acknowledged as much in the
aftermath of his latest title defense.
“Look we know who’s next,” Adesanya said. “Trust me, the first time
I told you, it was an error on my part spamming the right hand and
that was in kickboxing.
“It’s easy to knockout, what’s the hillbilly’s name [Strickland],
because he was parrying the jabs but like I said at the press
conference, the next time I put you on skates, you’re going to get
frozen like Elsa.”
As for Pereira, he emerged from his fight relatively unscathed and
is ready to began preparation for a third meeting with Adesanya —
this time in the Octagon.
“Whenever he’s ready,” Pereira said. “I just finished my fight. I
am fine. I can start training tomorrow. I’m going to take two weeks
to enjoy my life a little bit. Whenever he’s ready. I’m good.”