Israel Adesanya didn’t give much away in his reaction after his arch rival Alex Pereira landed yet another knockout victory last weekend.
The former middleweight champions have a legendary feud that dates back to their kickboxing days, with both men having knocked out the other over the years. There appears to be a grudging respect between the two, with Adesanya getting the better of their last meeting.
But you’ll rarely see the New Zealand man give his rival too much props, with UFC 303 no different on Saturday night. Pereira knocked out Jiri Prochazka in a late-notice main event to defend his light-heavyweight title and cement his spot as one of the sport’s top stars.
Israel Adesanya unfazed as Alex Pereira viciously knocks out Jiri Prochazka
As one of Alex Pereira’s greatest rivals, fans were fascinated to see Israel Adesanya’s reaction to yet another dominant victory. After sharing footage of his famous win over the Brazilian at UFC 287, he released a video to his Freestylebender YouTube channel where he watched the fight with friends.
Adesanya stayed relaxed as he laid down on a couch to watch the event, and seemed completely unbothered after watching yet another brutal knockout from his old enemy. He briefly broke out of his trance to joke that his brother David’s “juju didn’t work”, before laughing and ending the video.
While watching the fight, his expression barely changed even as Pereira landed a massive knockdown late in the first. And it was similar as the second quickly went the same way, with the champion defending his belt with a vicious head kick followed by ground and pound.
As the room erupted around him, Adesanya could be seen simply saying “Damn, that’s bad. Oh it’s bad, damn.” He then declared that “this card was cursed”, and told his brother David that his “juju didn’t work”, with the video showing him attempting a ritual to summon a Prochazka win.
Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira unsure of trilogy after kickboxing past
Unlike most UFC feuds where the combatants are 1-1 after exciting knockouts in both bouts, Pereira and Adesanya are likely done with fighting one another. And the clamour does appear to be limited from fans as well, particularly given they had already fought twice prior in kickboxing.
Adesanya insists all these years later that he did enough to win their first meeting despite losing a decision, and that he was dominant the second time before being caught and knocked out. And he had to bring himself to a “dark place” in order to avenge yet another KO loss in their first UFC meeting.
“I just knew, I can beat this guy,” Adesanya told Demetrious Johnson on his MightyCast. “It wasn’t about proving it to anyone else, it’s about myself. I know I can beat this guy, so that last Miami one, I was in different place. I had to tap into some darkness for that camp.
“People who knew me, I was different. I was like, ‘Ain’t no way this m*********** beat me four times.’ It’s about the story. So now I beat him once. How ironic, I beat him once, but then watch this: If I fight him again, I knock him out, what’s that?
“What are they going to say? ‘It’s 3-2. It’s now a best-out-of-seven.’ Bro, I’m 34. I’ve only got certain more fights left, why am I going to fight the same guy how many times? I just wanted to prove to myself who’s the best.”
For Pereira’s part, he is now in a brand new weight division, and is even contemplating a further move up to heavyweight that would all but kill the trilogy. Adesanya is still pursuing a third reign as middleweight champion after losing his belt to Sean Strickland last year, and has limited experience up at 205lb.
“No, I wouldn’t go back to middleweight to face Israel Adesanya,” Pereira told Stake last week. “I don’t even think I can make 185 lbs anymore. I feel super motivated at light-heavyweight. If there were talks about another match with him, it would have to be at light heavyweight.”
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