Israel Adesanya doesn’t understand Alex Pereira’s line of thinking ahead of his old rival’s sophomore bout in the heavyweight division.
The former two-division champion is set to face one-time heavyweight title challenger Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335, which takes place Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Ahead of the matchup, Pereira told Connect Cast that he’ll return to light heavyweight if he loses to Pavlovich.
Adesanya, who has shared the combat sports spotlight with Pereira on four different
occasions — including two bouts inside the octagon — feels like Pereira may have made a couple of mistakes.
“I don’t know why he’s taking this fight, it doesn’t make sense to me,” Adesanya told Demetrious Johnson. “I mean, I already saw a clip of Pereira saying if he loses to Pavlovich, he’s going back down to 205. I don’t like that. I don’t like the fact he’s putting that out there. What the f*ck do you mean, ‘If I lose?’”
It was clear the UFC had designs on speed-running Pereira towards an Adesanya matchup from the moment he signed with the company. After Pereira won both of their contests in the kickboxing realm, Pereira ended up stopping Adesanya in the fifth round of their UFC 281 main event in November 2022.
Five months later, Adesanya got his revenge by knocking Pereira unconscious at UFC 287 in April 2023, which ended up winning MMA Fighting’s Knockout of the Year.
Since then, the two have become quite friendly. Adesanya warns Pereira he needs to go back to the mentality that made him one of the most successful and scary fighters in the promotion.
“Go back to Chama,” Adesanya said. “All this BS, all this fugazi, just stick to Chama. Chama.
“Why not just stay at 205 after this last fight with Ciryl Gane? I thought he was going to go [back] to 205. It made sense. He’s a big dude for 185. People didn’t say shit about weight-cutting until I knocked him out.”
