The end of every year comes with various felicitations for the noteworthy UFC fights held in it. Similarly, ‘ESPN MMA’ recently revealed that they had awarded their prestigious ‘Knockout Of The Year 2023’ title to the former middleweight champ Israel Adesanya. The title was awarded to Izzy for his KO victory over Alex Pereira at UFC 287. But things didn’t go too well when ‘The Last Stylebender’ decided to flaunt his newly earned accolade a bit.
Adesanya took to his own ‘X’ account and posted a snap showcasing his award. However, a large chunk of fans didn’t take ‘Izzy’ bragging pretty well. Many of them pulled up the fact that the Nigerian-New Zealander was still a lot behind the Brazilian in their rivalry. The caption to ‘Izzy’s’ ‘X’ update read:
“In MMA news…”
Apart from the generally deriding comments, a few fans decided to strike ‘Izzy’ with a harder blow. They pulled up one of Adesanya’s videos after their second duel in ‘Glory Kickboxing’. Pereira had won their first bout via a controversial decision which had Adesanya debunking it as a victory. But ‘Poatan’ knocked Adesanya out cold in their second fight as well. This is why ‘Izzy’ believed that ‘Poatan’ had beaten him only once.
In the video, he expressed confidence about becoming a future champion while predicting that someday ‘Poatan’ would be sitting in a bar watching him fight and brag about his only victory over him. But, most UFC fans already know that Pereira’s victory train didn’t stop where Adesanya had predicted. The Brazilian defeated his archrival in their first UFC encounter as well.
Thus, some fans used Adesanya’s own words in his old video to mock him since he was the one who had beaten Pereira only once. One such reply read, “I beat that guy one time”. But it also had ‘Izzy’s’ old video attached to it.
Another fan also reminded ‘Izzy’ that he had become the “one time” guy now. His comment read, “3-1”
One more fan decided to pick on ‘Izzy’s’ words in the video. However, his reply just consisted of the clip.
Another fan also described his thoughts with just a snap in the comment. Whatever he wanted to say was in the snap itself.
A look at the current situation tells us that Pereira is ruling the UFC’s light heavyweight division now. But ‘Poatan’s’ UFC 295 in-octagon interview revealed that his prime target was still Adesanya. But, whether UFC fans get to see a fifth showdown between the two depends largely on ‘Izzy’ as well.
Israel Adesanya may be up for another showdown against the light heavyweight Alex Pereira
The Izzy-Poatan rivalry is becoming one that the fans can’t stay quiet about. But fighters often lose interest in fighting the same rival over and over again. Adesanya appeared on Ariel Helwani’s noted podcast, ‘The MMA Hour’ a few months back where he revealed that he was somewhat over his rivalry over Pereira. But he revealed a single condition on which he will be willing to fight Pereira once again. ‘Izzy’ said:
“If he wins the belt at 205, I’ll do it again. If not, I think he’s done with it, I’m done with it, everyone else wants to see it, but we’ve moved on. It’s life”
Well, now that ‘Poatan’ has grabbed the light heavyweight championship, a large chunk of fans are calling out for the fifth Adesanya vs. Pereira clash. The Brazilian has already revealed that he is up for it. Now it’s the Nigerian-New Zealander’s turn to stick to his word.
