Alex Pereira Calls ‘Mentally Shook’ Israel Adesanya’s Bluff for UFC 281

UFC superstar Alex Pereira does not believe Israel Adesanya and his camp wanted to fight him.

Former Glory kickboxing two-division champion Pereira is gearing up to face reigning UFC middleweight champion Adesanya for UFC 281 on Nov. 12 at iconic Madison Square Garden in New York. Pereira is the only man to have knocked out Adesanya and holds two wins over him in the kickboxing ring. He made his way to the UFC in Nov. 2021 and racked up a three-fight win streak, securing finishes over Andreas Michailidis and top-ranked middleweight Sean Strickland in his last outing.

Adesanya will go into the bout looking to add his seventh title defense and avenge the two losses against a familiar foe. Although Adesanya has mentioned he does not care about the gold on a number of occasions, ‘Poatan’ does not buy his claims.

“If he really wanted this, he would have done that as soon as I signed with the UFC,” Pereira told MMA Fighting podcast Trocação Franca. “He’s being forced to fight, he’s the champion. It’s obvious that he cares about the belt.”

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Pereira Says Adesanya Did Not Want the Fight

Pereira’s addition to the most elite MMA promotion injected a lot of excitement into the division, with many fans clamoring for a showdown with Adesanya. However, ‘Poatan’ believes ‘Stylebender’ did not want to compete against him for the third time and tried avoiding him for as long as possible

“Right after I got in the UFC he said he would like to fight me maybe after four fights but ‘calm down’. He wanted [to fight me], but only after I did four fights. Why? He had in his mind I could lose to someone and he would say, ‘Is that the guy you want me to fight?’ I never believed that, but some people did. Others realize now he was bluffing. That’s not what he wants.”

The 35-year-old Brazilian suggested that Adesanya’s team voiced their criticism of the matchup as they are concerned for their fighter.

“Right after it was announced that my next fight would be for the belt against him, he and his whole team said it was a bit unfair that I was fighting for the belt because I just got here, that Adesanya did so many fights and I should do the same. Man, I’m just hearing that and taking it as something positive for me.

“That shows me he pretended he wanted [to fight me] and when I got here, his whole team was against it. That shows all of them, he and his team are mentally shook.”

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Pereira Will Not Let Anyone Take His KO Win Away From Him

Adesanya opened as the betting favorite over Pereira despite conceding twice to him in his combat sports record. Many fans and fellow fighters have backed the champion, undefeated at 185 pounds, to come out on top in the nearing clash as MMA is different from kickboxing and incorporates more elements.

Pereira hit back at the critics who dismiss his knockout of Adesanya.

“I posted something the other day and someone wrote, ‘Be more humble. The champion himself posted the video of him getting knocked out by you,’” Pereira said. “F*ck, so tell him to post a video of him knocking me out. He doesn’t have that. I’ve knocked out the guy that is UFC champion today.

“It doesn’t matter if that was 30 years ago, it’s part of my history and people want to take that away from me. It doesn’t make sense.”

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