UFC superstar Israel Adesanya has called on Dana White to bring back a familiar face inside the octagon for his next fight.
The reigning middleweight champion is gearing up to face longtime foe Alex Pereira in the headlining bout of UFC 281 on Nov. 12 in the promotion’s grand return to the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York after a three-year hiatus. He goes into the bout off a lopsided decision win over Jared Cannonier and will look to add a seventh title defense under his belt.
Pereira is the only man to have knocked out ‘Stylebender’ and holds two wins over him in the sport of kickboxing. Their first clash was a razor-thin contest that many believe Adesanya should have won. In their second bout, Adesanya rocked Pereira, who got a standing eight count by the referee, before brutally getting knocked out with the Brazilian’s signature left hook.
Meanwhile, ‘Poatan’ leapfrogged the division to get a title shot after mirroring his left hook finish over top-ranked middleweight Sean Strickland in his last bout in July at UFC 276.
Adesanya Makes Special Request to Dana White for UFC 281 Grudge Fight With Pereira
Ahead of their nearing outing, Adesanya shared his thoughts on competing against an opponent who has already beaten him twice.
“These other last three guys, I knew I was going to beat them. This guy, I know I can beat him but it’s because of the reality in this realm, in this timeline, he’s beat me in the past so there’s no false sense of arrogance. I have to humble myself in the sense that he can beat me. But I know I can beat him. Like I said, that last fight we had, I was touching him. I had him rocked. There’s no referee to save his a**.”
Considering how hurt he had ‘Poatan,’ Adesanya made a special request to company president Dana White for his grudge match.
“Dana, bring back Steve Mazzagatti,” Adesanya said in a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel. “Bring back Steve Mazzagatti to ref my fight because I want to hear, ‘fight back’ as I’m punching him in the face like 50 times. I want to hear, ‘fight back. You need to move Alex, you need to move.
“Fight back. Now hook him up.’ I want to hear that 50 times before they drag me off him.”
White Called Mazzagatti the ‘Worst Ref in the History of Any Fight Business’
Steve Mazzagatti suffered a string of bad calls when officiating in the UFC. He was on the receiving end of a classic Dana White rant in which the head honcho labeled Mazzagatti as the “worst ref in the history of any fight business.”
“Mazzagatti, as a referee?” White said via MMA Fighting. “This f**king guy shouldn’t even be watching MMA on TV, let alone refereeing it. I think he’s the worst ref in the history of any fight business, ever. He’s horrible. We don’t pick the refs. The athletic commission does. Those guys are picked by the government.
“It’s not that I don’t like him, he’s a nice guy. He’s an absolute nice guy, he has no business whatsoever being anywhere near mixed martial arts.”
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UFC 281 Star Makes Unusual Request to Dana White for Grudge Fight