While championship trilogies have been all the rage in the UFC, the
rivalry between Israel
Adesanya and Alex
Pereira might follow a different path.
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On the heels of Adesanya’s second-round knockout of Pereira in the
UFC
287 headliner, the newly-crowned middleweight champion shot
down the notion of a potential trilogy between the two rivals.
“I don’t keep score. I settle it, and now it’s settled,” Adesanya
said at the UFC 287 post-fight press conference. “I gave him a fast
track to the belt. I could’ve said, ‘Naw, who’s he fought? He only
fought one top five.’ But no. He did well. He fought some top guys.
He beat [Sean] Strickland, and I was like, ‘Well, fine, There’s no
one else.’
“I was looking for that challenge. He beat me in kickboxing and I
got the immediate rematch because of what I’ve done in the game. …
I did the hard yard and I earned my f—-ing rematch. Now he has to
do the hard yard and earn it, but I don’t think he’s going to. Go
cause problems at 205. He’s a motherf—-er to deal with, I’ll tell
you that.”
Adesanya and Pereira have now squared off four times combined in
kickboxing and MMA. Pereira bested “The Last Stylebender” twice in
kickboxing, which led to him being fast tracked to a title shot at
UFC 281, where he became an unlikely UFC champion with a
fifth-round stoppage of Adesanya last November. In that sense, it
seems like the story might be unfinished. However, Pereira is an
extremely large middleweight, and UFC president Dana White echoed
Adesanya’s sentiment that the Brazlian’s next destination could be
the light heavyweight division.
“Honestly, I think that Pereira probably moves to 205 after this
fight,” White said. “He’s a monster. I know that he still had two
pounds to cut leading up to when there was like an hour left in
weigh-ins. Yeah. I’m not saying he’s moving to 205, but I’d assume
he is. You guys can ask him, himself. But it wouldn’t surprise me.
… I would bet anything he moves to 205 after this fight.”