UFC 287: Israel Adesanya revels in stunning KO of Alex Pereira, mocks his son with Octagon flop – ‘I’m petty’
- Adesanya gains revenge over his personal bogeyman in Miami, flattening Pereira in second round to reclaim UFC middleweight title
- ‘I looked for his kid, just to remind him,’ the champ says, recalling incident from 2015 kickboxing fight with the Brazilian
Israel Adesanya gained revenge over his personal bogeyman on Saturday night in Miami, flattening Alex Pereira with a stunning KO to reclaim the UFC middleweight title in emphatic fashion.
After beating him twice in their kickboxing days, the Brazilian had hunted down “The Last Stylebender” and followed him into the world of mixed martial arts, shocking him with a fifth-round TKO last November in New York City to end Adesanya’s dominant three-year reign over the division.
With his legacy on the line, Adesanya looked in trouble again, covering up against the Octagon fence late in the second round. Pereira swooped in for the kill, in what would have been a carbon copy of the flurry that ended their previous bout in Madison Square Garden.
But Adesanya sprang out with a vicious right hook that caught Pereira completely off guard, and wobbled him. Adesanya needed no second invitation to finish the job, and brushed the hulking 35-year-old’s temple to send him crashing down to the canvas.
“I played possum,” Adesanya said at the post-event press conference, comparing the knockout to Muhammad Ali’s famed “Phantom Punch” on Sonny Liston.
“I knew my leg was hurt, so I went southpaw. I knew this was it – possum, possum, possum. I set traps, man. After that rope a dope moment I saw him lying flat on the ground, frozen like Elsa.”
