Israel Adesanya has admitted he may never have another shot at the UFC middleweight title if he loses his rematch with Alex Pereira next month.
The former world champion had never lost at 185lb before facing Pereira last November, and was dominating the first five rounds until he was stopped with seconds on the clock. The pair had fought twice before in kickboxing, with Pereira winning both, including one particularly vicious knockout, but the Nigerian was a heavy favourite under MMA rules.
And they agreed to immediately run the fight back next Saturday in Miami, with Adesanya understanding there's very little chance he gets back to the top of the division with a loss. He will at that stage be riding a two-fight losing streak, and have been stopped three times by the champion across different disciplines, and would need a massive run to get another shot.
“I’m hunting, and I mean that in every sense of the word,” Israel Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “The mindset is different, definitely. Even, Eugene [Bareman, his head coach] and I are on the same page. The mindset is definitely different.
"I like it because it puts it all on me, and it’s kind of poetic in a way. One life: Roll the dice. This is my last shot, and I’m going to give to it all I’ve got in every sense of the word.”
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Adesanya had such a dominant run atop the middleweight division that he had defeated two of his top five contenders twice, and had otherwise defeated the other two. But Pereira proves a different challenge, seemingly on a mental level as much as physical, given the nature of his previous victories.
Their first kickboxing meeting went the distance, with many believing that Adesanya won despite the judges giving it to Pereira. But there was no doubt left in their rematch when after a dominant showing from the future UFC champion his rival landed a massive shot that changed the fight and saw a massive knockout.
Adesanya went on to become one of the biggest stars in MMA, headlining pay-per-view events around the world and winning world titles, while Pereira opted for a different route to the top. However, within just seven fights in the cage, one of which was a loss, the Brazilian climbed to the top of the middleweight division and became the most dangerous challenger of Adesanya's career.
