‘He doesn’t want this fight’, Alex Pereira claims Israel Adesanya and his team are ‘mentally shook’ heading into UFC 281

A highly anticipated trilogy fight is scheduled to go down this weekend in the main event of UFC 281. There, at New York’s Madison…

By: Tim Bissell | 7 months ago
‘He doesn’t want this fight’, Alex Pereira claims Israel Adesanya and his team are ‘mentally shook’ heading into UFC 281
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

A highly anticipated trilogy fight is scheduled to go down this weekend in the main event of UFC 281. There, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Israel Adesanya will defend his UFC middleweight title against Alex Pereira, a man he met (and lost to) twice during his days in GLORY kickboxing.

Pereira recently appeared on MMA Fighting’s Portuguese language podcast Trocação Franca with Guilherme Cruz. During that appearance Poatan claimed ‘The Last Stylebender’ had been forced into this fight.

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

“He knows I’m not like the other guys he fought, otherwise the results would have been different in both times we fought,” Pereira continued. “He knows I’m different, and I’m proving that. I’m showing that in my three UFC fights. I’m being honest here. He doesn’t want this fight. Nobody wants. His team doesn’t want it. People close to him don’t want it because they know the risk. Is he good? Is he the champion? He’s there because he did what he did. Everybody knows my potential and sees my evolution.

“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.

“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.”

During the podcast Pereira also weighed in on Adesanya’s more recent performances, which have been criticized for being bereft of action and killer instinct.

“There’s no way he fights the way he’s been fighting, he will have to be more aggressive,” Pereira reckoned. “I’m ready for that. We’re talking MMA, we’re not talking kickboxing. I think he comes more aggressive, and that’s perfect for me.”

Pereira is clearly confident that his fight with Adesanya will go similar to the previous times they tangled (one which Pereira won by decision and the other by stunning KO). The Brazilian said that this confidence has lead to some backlash online.

“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. 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.”

UFC 281: Adesanya vs. Pereira goes live at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV. The co-main event has Carla Esparza defending her UFC strawweight title against former champion Zhang Weili. The main card also includes a contest between lightweight title challengers Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler.



Official UFC 281 Fight Poster

LIVE STREAM UFC 281 PPV ON ESPN+ HERE!

BLOCKBUSTER TWO TITLE-FIGHT SHOWDOWN! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to MSG (Madison Square Garden) in NYC, NY, on Sat. NOV. 12, 2022, with a must-see thriller that will see perennial fan favorite, No. 1 ranked Israel ‘The Last Stylebender’ Adesanya (23-1), battle No. 3 division ranked contender, Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira (6-1), for the UFC Middleweight Championship. Meanwhile, in UFC 281’s pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event, we get the current and two-time UFC Strawweight Champion, Carla ‘The Cookie Monster’ Esparza (19-6), defending her title opposite Zhang Weili (22-3). These bouts will be preceded by an exciting Lightweight barnburner between Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier and ‘Iron’ Michael Chandler, in a must-see barnburner.

Don’t miss a single second of EPIC face-punching action!

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Tim Bissell
Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

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