The bad blood saga between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya is one of the most capturing rivalries in the UFC. The shared rivalry between the two seems to continue as the water remains unsettled. Alex Pereira, however, recently claimed his stance on Adesanya after receiving the ‘disrespectful’ response on his call out. The Brazilian fighter gave his thoughts in a Q&A session held by Ares FC.
Pereira defeated Jiří Procházka via TKO at UFC 295 and became a light heavyweight champion. Not just this but post becoming the two-division champion he called out Israel Adesanya for a bout. ‘Poatan’ expressed how Izzy’s comical insults motivated him to move from “bar” to the octagon and now it’s time Adesanya shows what all he has.
Following Pereira’s call-out, Izzy took to his YouTube channel and shared a response. He expressed his take on how his comments have stayed with Pereira and he loves the fact that his insults have really hurt Pereira to his core. However, since Pereira’s victory at UFC 295, Izzy hasn’t shown any will when it comes to changing divisions.
During the recent Q&A session, Pereira shared that he already gave a chance to Adesanya post his title win but Izzy didn’t honour that. He further added that Izzy didn’t show any sign of respect so it doesn’t matter to him now. Pereira closed his statement by saying that he is fine with the possibility of Adesanya fighting or not fighting him now. He said,
“It doesn’t matter for me. I called him out in the cage after the title win, and I wanted to give him the chance, and I saw he was not giving me any respect for this – he was laughing about it and making some jokes. So for me, it doesn’t matter anymore. I gave him the chance. If he comes up, nice; if he doesn’t, it doesn’t matter.”
Both ‘Poatan’ and ‘The Last Stylebender’ have faced each other twice in the UFC. But before this, the duo also shared a kickboxing past when they went against each other. They faced each other at UFC 281 in which Pereira defeated Izzy via TKO and won the middleweight championship. They were then booked for a rematch at UFC 287 in which Pereira lost to Adesanya making him the division’s champion.
Moreover, a trilogy fight has been brewing since their even 1-1 UFC scores but nothing till now seems to have materialised.
Is Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya possible?
Both these fighters have a shared history of the past 7 years now. Currently, Pereira is the champion of the light heavyweight division and will be fighting at 205 pounds as of now. On the other hand, Adesanya currently competes in the middleweight division where he is #1 in the ranking.
To face ‘Poatan’ in the trilogy, Izzy will have to move from middleweight to light heavyweight division. Moreover, Adesanya also shared his thoughts on fighting Pereira post his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293. He even expressed fighting the 36-year-old Pereira at 205 pounds. But as of now, nothing has been confirmed from Adesanya’s end and he is currently taking some time off from fighting.
It will be interesting to see how things turn out for both these fighters as the things between the two remain unsettled fueling the talks of their trilogy fight.
