UFC 287: Israel Adesanya does things his way, including an immediate rematch vs. Alex Pereira
Each of the three times that Israel Adesanya fought Alex Pereira, twice as a kickboxer and once as the UFC middleweight champion, a common theme played out.
Adesanya racked up a lot of the rounds. He was in command for much of the fight. At the end of their first fight, a kickboxing match at Glory of Heroes 1 on April 2, 2016, in Shenzhen, China, many felt Adesanya won the bout, but Pereira took a unanimous decision.
In the rematch, at Glory of Heroes 7 on March 4, 2017, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Adesanya was up 2-0 in rounds when he was caught by a vicious left hook from Pereira and knocked out in the third round.
They fought the third time at UFC 281 on Nov. 12, 2022, at Madison Square Garden in New York. After four rounds, Adesanya was up 39-37 on all three judges' scorecards and en route to a successful title defense. Glover Teixeira, then the UFC light heavyweight champion and Pereira's coach, gave Pereira an all-time motivational speech in between rounds. He urged Pereira to pick it up and go for the finish.
Adesanya started the fifth in good shape and then, boom, it was over.
At 2:01 of the fifth and final round, referee Marc Goddard jumped in to stop it as Adesanya was hurt and in trouble against the cage.
Three fights, and each time it seemed that Adesanya was going to win or had won, and he came out 0-3.
On Saturday, in the main event of UFC 287 at Miami-Dade Arena, Adesanya will give it another go. He insisted upon a rematch, and got it. Some of his peers thought it wasn't the best decision to go straight into another fight with Pereira. That school of thought goes that Adesanya should have taken a couple of fights to regain his confidence and work on new strategies he needs to defeat Pereira.
That, though, is not how Israel Adesanya operates. He wanted the rematch and wanted it as soon as possible. UFC president Dana White often refers to fighters as "gangsters" for taking difficult fights. If Adesanya pushing for a quick rematch after being down 0-3 and knocked out in back-to-back fights by Pereira is not gangster, nothing ever could be.
To Adesanya, though, it's simple.
"I don't dwell on losses like that," Adesanya said. "I've never been one to sit back and feel sorry for myself. I never let a loss get into my head."
In an interview with UFC broadcaster Jon Anik in February, Adesanya gave some insight into why he sought the rematch. Anik pointed out that Adesanya had at that point headlined 20 percent of all UFC pay-per-view events. Adesanya has headlined UFC 234, UFC 236, UFC 243, UFC 253, UFC 259, UFC 263, UFC 271, UFC 276 and UFC 281 since he fought Anderson Silva at UFC 234 on Feb. 10, 2019. He'll headline UFC 287 with Pereira, his 10th headliner in the last 53 PPV shows.
And he told Anik he's not the type to wait. He's a guy who makes things happen.
"I roll the dice, man," Adesanya told Anik. "I'm not just going to sit down on my throne and let everyone else pass me by. I roll the dice and I chase greatness."
Adesanya chased greatness for four-plus rounds in November. He fought brilliantly for most of that fight. He was avoiding Pereira's power shots but clipping him with crisp combinations and threatening him in all areas of MMA. The post-fight statistics were even — each had one takedown, and Pereira had a 91-86 edge in significant strikes — but the match largely went Adesanya's way.
He credited Pereira for his work in the fifth, but said he also made a mistake.
"It was a little bit of both," Adesanya said. "It wasn't all me or all him. At a certain point, I made a mistake and look, he's very, very good at what he does. That combination led to it."
Adesanya went out for the fifth round confident he was about to score what might have been the biggest win of his career. He knew from past experience he couldn't let down — and, significantly, he did not — but he couldn't take unnecessary risks.
Pereira's one of the hardest punchers active in the UFC now and one of the best KO artists it's ever seen.
As he waited for the bell to start the final round, Adesanya reminded himself to keep his concentration.
"I just wanted to stay focused and not get caught," Adesanya said. "That was the main thing. Stay focused, stay active."
Staying active is what Adesanya does. There is little benefit from his perspective of sitting back and waiting for something to happen. A tune-up fight isn't his style.
He may lose again, but if he does, it's going to be on his terms.
"We know each other well and I don't think there is any benefit to [not] fighting," he said. "There are some things I need to do, but I'm a fighter and this is not only what I do but who I am."
