Israel Adesanya's long-time rival Marvin Vettori hopes he will be so viciously knocked out that he needs serious medical attention against Alex Pereira at UFC 281 in November.
The eventual UFC middleweight champion Adesanya was left in need of oxygen after being viciously knocked out by Pereira in their second kickboxing match in 2017. Now, over five years later, the pair will reignite their long-standing feud in the MMA cage with UFC gold on the line at Madison Square Garden.
Adesanya is seemingly unbeatable at middleweight, having beaten Vettori himself twice on an undefeated run which was only scuppered when he jumped up 20lb to try and take the light-heavyweight title in 2021. However, there is genuine intrigue about how he will cope with Pereira again after losing twice to him in kick-boxing including that vicious stoppage.
Vettori still clearly harbours ill-will towards his old rival as he prepares for his meeting with Robert Whittaker this weekend in Paris. Both men competing in tomorrow's main event have lost to Adesanya twice and are likely miles from earning trilogy bouts, meaning a Pereira win would open up the division for them.
“I want Pereira to win just because it would excite me more as the next challenger, eventually,” Vettori said at media day this week. “And I think that will happen because after this, I’m going to establish myself as the No.1 contender. I mean, what’s left for me? I’ve pretty much fought everybody, and I think it will be undeniable, another title shot with a great performance against Whittaker.
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“Adesanya, it’s over. Nothing excites me about that guy. Of course, I’ll get my win against him before I’m done with all this, but the things that he can do best – now he’s painting his nails. I definitely like more Pereira and the way he carries himself and the way he goes about fighting and all that – not much bulls***, just straight, bad motherf***er type of thing, and that’s it.”
Vettori almost handed Adesanya his first loss in his early UFC career at middleweight, with one judge even believing he had done enough in their 2018 meeting. He lost that bout by split decision but clawed his way back to a title opportunity last year against the Nigerian, which he lost much more comfortably in a five-round unanimous decision.
Adesanya is one of the promotion's biggest stars, and is their highest-paid fighter outside of Conor McGregor's abnormally large payouts. However, fans have begun to turn on him after going the distance in relatively boring fights during his last four UFC outings including an uneventful, if dominant, win over Vettori last June at UFC 263 in Arizona.
