UFC Middleweight fighter Israel Adesanya analyzed and predicted how UFC 295 will go down this weekend. Adesanya, a long rival of Alex Pereira, showed immense respect to the man who defeated him three times out of four attempts including GLORY kickboxing. ‘The Last Stylebender’ claimed the other UFC Middleweights should thank him for getting rid of Pereira from the division.
Pereira defeated Adesanya at UFC 281 to win the Middleweight title. Months later, in the rematch at UFC 287, Pereira failed to defend his title and Adesanya defeated the Brazilian for the first time in his career. After the loss, Pereira announced he would be moving to the Light Heavyweight division.
Alex Pereira will make history inside The Garden this weekend 📈
(h/t @jedigoodman)
Poatan is 3-0 at MSG across his MMA and kickboxing career.
Will he remain undefeated there and leave MSG as the new light heavyweight champion?🤔🏆#UFC295 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/iAXeblb89X
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) November 8, 2023
In his Light Heavyweight debut, Pereira defeated Jan Blachowicz via a split decision. ‘Poatan‘ is now on the hunt for another UFC title as he faces former Light Heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka for the belt.
Adesanya, on the other hand, lost his title in his latest defense against Sean Strickland. He believes the UFC Middleweights should thank him for getting rid of Pereira as he would haunt them otherwise.
“These middleweights should get on their f*cking knees and thank me cuz I got this man out of there ’cause, if not, you have to deal with him over and over again, all of you, and I doubt any of you would want to f*cking fight this guy. I did four times but I got it done just with one,” Adesanya claimed.
Adesanya praised both Light Heavyweight fighters and made his pick for the win at UFC 295.
Israel Adesanya believes Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka are special but the Czech fighter will prevail
Adesanya said Pereira was not just a special fighter but a special human. He showed immense respect to Poatan in the video uploaded on his YouTube channel.
He said, “I’ll say Pereira is a special human being, not just a fighter, special human being and I’ll say that because I’ve been there with him many times, a special human being, and he’s got a special ability when it comes to putting people to sleep.”
Adesanya explained Pereira’s journey to kickboxing and from there to the UFC. He believes if a movie was made based on Pereira’s life, it would be amazing.
Main Event
Vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
Jiri Prochazka vs Alex Pereira#UFC295 pic.twitter.com/ObOHRpYFiU— Jason Hagholm (@JHagholm1) November 9, 2023
On the other hand, he was also inspired by Prochazka’s life. The Czech fighter has also been through a lot after his father died when he was just six. Adesanya was impressed by Prochazka’s immaculate discipline and even called him a ‘gentle giant’.
However, when it came to picking a winner, Adesanya chose Prochazka. The former Middleweight champion feels Prochazka will win the bout via a stoppage.