Mixed Martial Arts fighter Alex Pereira is confident that he has the ability to inspire fellow MMA athlete Israel Adesanya. After his victory in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 295 headliner, where he claimed the light heavyweight title with a second-round stoppage of Jiri Prochazka, Pereira called out Adesanya, his longstanding adversary. He challenged Adesanya to face him in the 205 pounds category, stating, “I know that I’m not going to do what he did to me and make me fight three times to fight him at middleweight. I know it’s a guy we have a lot of history. I want to make this fight happen. Adesanya, come to daddy.”
Adesanya’s previous fight was at UFC 293, a match that culminated in him giving away the middleweight crown through a surprise unanimous decision loss to Sean Strickland. He recently suggested he might take a break from MMA. Despite Pereira’s callout, Adesanya opted for a playful reaction, taking to social media to troll his rival. Adesanya’s response didn’t deter Pereira, who stated after the UFC 295 post-fight press conference, “Regardless of what he said, I was respectful, and I mean what I said. I’ll give him a chance. He doesn’t seem motivated, and I think that’s a fight everybody would like to see, so I try to push him to come back.”
Pereira and Adesanya have a past in the world of combat sports. Pereira, who hails from Brazil, beat Adesanya twice in kickboxing before transitioning to MMA. He went on to claim the MMA middleweight belt at UFC 291 with a fifth-round TKO victory over the Nigerian-born Kiwi, Adesanya. However, Adesanya later beat him in a fight where he knocked Pereira out in the second round at UFC 287 in March. Since then, Pereira moved to the 205 pounds category. His ambition now is to get Adesanya back in the ring, asserting, “I think I owe this to Adesanya. He motivated me first, and the whole thing with him staying out all this time until 2027, I think it’s a waste of talent. I think I can bring him back.”