Israel Adesanya, a former middleweight champion of the UFC, has given an explanation for why he was defeated by Alex Pereira at UFC 281, held at Madison Square Garden in November.
Prior to Pereira’s entry, Adesanya dominated the middleweight class. The two fighters engaged in their first mixed martial arts fight, but they had also engaged in two kickboxing fights before to that.
While Pereira declared before the last round that only a finish could guarantee their victory, Adesanya still had the match lead going into the fifth round. Pereira entered the fifth round with daring and tenacity, knocked out Adesanya with a technical knockout, and won the middleweight title.
Israel Adesanya Suspended For Six Months After Defeat
‘The Last Stylebender’ revealed he couldn’t recover from the hits he took to the leg against the Brazilian fighter.
“Alex fought really well. I hurt his leg, but he beat mine off in such a way that I couldn’t recover. I also had some problems that I had to solve before the fight, but everyone goes to fight with something. You know, we always run into some kind of problem when we train,” Adesanya said.
A rematch between Adesanya and Pereira has been officially announced for April 8 at the FTX Arena in Miami, United States.
While the Nigerian-born fighter’s coach and other experts like Daniel Cormier have questioned the timing of the rematch coming too soon, Adesanya is 100 per cent determined to face Pereira next and it looks like he will have his wish.
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