The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion Alex Pereira has hit out at his closest rival Israel Adesanya following the aftermath of their fight in November.
The Brazilian fighter encouraged Adesanya to give up trying to fight him, pointing out the disparity in fighting styles as a major factor and adding that Adesanya’s style simply does not match up well with his.
After defeating the Nigeria-born fighter twice in their kickboxing career, Pereira defeated the “Last Stylebender” for the third time in his career when they squared off in the UFC 281 main event at Madison Square Garden.
In an interview with Super Lutas, Pereira shared a similar story regarding a fighter who defeated him multiple times in his kickboxing days; without mentioning his name, the Brazilian ascribed the constant defeats to a difference in styles.
Perreira added that he would probably lose again if he faced the same fighter, even though the unnamed fighter is now retired.
“I’m going to say something that I’ve never told anyone,” he said. “I have 28 fights in amateur. I won 25 of them by knockout. I lost three fights. Three times to the same guy. In amateur, three fights. I don’t understand why. But now I do. The styles don’t match.
He continued: “The guy has stopped fighting. If I fought him again today, I think I’d lose again. Even though he’s done fighting, if I fought him, I would lose.
“If I fought him 10 times, I’ll lose. Adesanya needs to get that, the same way Whittaker did. He just doesn’t accept it.”
Pereira handed Adesanya the second defeat of his UFC career and the first in the middleweight category, to continue his four-fight victorious streak in the UFC.
Adesanya would do well to heed the Brazilian’s counsel by figuring out ways to counter the 35-year-old’s powerful punching techniques, given that there are talks of a possible rematch between the two adversaries.
