Alex Pereira didn’t like how Israel Adesanya disregarded his legacy, so he followed him to the UFC.
Less than a year after he suffered his second loss to Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in kickboxing, Adesanya (23-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC) signed with the UFC and went on to become a middleweight great. He captured the belt and defended it five times.
Pereira dethroned him. He needed just three octagon wins to earn his shot at UFC 281, where he rallied to knock “The Stylebender” out. The pair will rematch in Saturday’s UFC 287 headliner in Miami, and Pereira revealed Adesanya’s rise in the UFC fueled him.
“When Israel Adesanya joined the UFC, I started taking a close look because I had interest in fighting in MMA,” Pereira said during the UFC 287 Countdown. “There is a video of an interview with Israel Adesanya that motivated me so much.”
Pereira was referring to an interview Adesanya did with Sporting News Australia in 2020, in which he was dismissive of him.
“He watches all my fights, and every time I fight, like clockwork, he’d try to put something out like, ‘I beat this guy,'” Adesanya said. “At the end of the day, no one knows who the f*ck he is, and he’s going to be that guy when I’m world champion, when I’m a legend, he’s going to be at some pub talking sh*t about, ‘I beat that guy one time.'”
Pereira didn’t take too well to Adesanya’s words, and their storyline led to his quick rise in the UFC.
“I felt challenged,” Pereira said. “And whenever there’s a challenge, no one can hold me back. I wanted new challenges, and the UFC was it.”
UFC 287 takes place Saturday at Miami-Dade Arena in Miami. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 287.
