A number of Brazilian talents including a few Ultimate Fighting Championship greats voiced
their thoughts on the upcoming title fight this weekend.
Atop
UFC 287 on April 8 in Miami, Alex
Pereira (7-1) and Israel
Adesanya (23-2) will collide for the second time in the cage,
in their fourth meeting across combat sports. “Poatan” has gotten
the better of Adesanya on all three prior engagements, winning a
close decision in 2016 in kickboxing, and the second ended with
Pereira landing a vicious one-punch knockout. Pereira joined up in
the MMA ranks and stopped his rival late at UFC 281 in 2022 to
claim the title, and the promotion decided to run it back
immediately. Sherdog spoke to several notable Brazilian competitors
about this matchup, who all had plenty to share about their
countryman ahead of his first middleweight title defense.
Advertisement
Paulo
Costa: “Every time they face each other, they are very even,”
Costa noted. “Adesanya has the speed in his favor, while ‘Poatan’
has more knockout power. Adesanya was winning the first
confrontation until the fourth round. But Alex has a lot of
knockout power, so anything can happen Saturday.”
Gilbert
Burns: “I imagine if someone beat me twice in jiu-jitsu and
comes to MMA and beat me again, I would go to the fourth fight like
crazy,” Burns explained. “Concerning that, ‘Poatan’ is more
trustable, and has that mind game advantage. But on the other hand,
Adesanya is coming to the [fight with an] ‘all or nothing’
[approach]. If he wins that one, [the] UFC will certainly make the
trilogy, but if he loses, he will probably not have the opportunity
to fight ‘Poatan’ again. I can’t see a favorite in that.”
Vitor
Belfort: “That will be a real striking chess match. I think
that the three previous wins puts Alex ahead on that revenge, but
Adesanya is also a striking master and he showed that by winning
most rounds in their first fight. I´ll be in the first row
[watching] closely. My bet is in Alex,” Belfort predicted.
Patricio
Freire: “They repeated in MMA pretty much what they have done
in their previous kickboxing fights. First and second rounds of
study and after the third round they come to decide. I believe,
once again, the knockout power of ‘Poatan’ will make the
difference. I see him hitting his cross punch again in the third
round and winning by knockout,” “Pitbull” analyzed.
Caio
Borralho: “Definitely MMA is the most passionate sport on
earth,” the three-fight UFC vet stated. “Adesanya was winning three
out of four rounds. He committed just one mistake in the fifth
round and the story totally changed. In that second [fight], we
must consider how the weight cut process will impact on [Pereira’s]
performance. I see another chess match with both being able to
finish the fight [at] any moment. I don’t see favorites in that
one.”
Carlos
Barreto: “We can’t forget that Israel was winning the first
fight clearly until get hit by ‘Poatan’ in the last minutes of the
fight. If that cross punch [had] not hit him, we wouldn’t be
talking about that fight today. What makes me more excited about
that fight is that certainly both studied a lot [of] their mistakes
and will bring new weapons to Saturday. The big question is how the
psychological aspect of having lost the three previous fights will
impact Adesanya’s performance. In my opinion, three wins,
[including] two via knockout, means a lot. The fact is that
‘Poatan’ rented an apartment inside Adesanya’s head, and Saturday,
we will see it will impact on his performance,” the UFC 15
competitor concluded.