Alex Pereira has fired back at Israel Adesanya in his interview after the UFC 295. The new light-heavyweight champion called out Adesanya after knocking out Jiri Prochazka in the main event, however, Adesanya had different plans.
Alex Pereira called out Adesanya for a trilogy fight in the UFC after winning the title. He commented in his post-fight interview in the ring: “I’m not the type of guy to call people out, but there is a guy that back in the day said that I was going to be someone who stayed in a bar. That motivated me, and he rescued me from a bar to be here today.”
Let it gooooo 🎶 pic.twitter.com/gv9ZYliKwH
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) November 12, 2023
The 9th two-weight UFC world champion concluded by stating: “That guy said he says he wants to come back in 2027, I think it’s a waste of talent, so I want to rescue him too and come back to fight. It’s a guy that I have a history with, so hey Adesanya, come to Daddy.”
In response, Adesanya tweeted a photo from his win over Pereira in UFC 287. He captioned the picture with song lyrics from the movie Frozen: “Let it gooooo.” The picture of the meme and the caption of the tweet indicate that Adesanya is not interested in the trilogy fight.
Alex Pereira fires back at Israel Adesanya’s “Frozen” post after #UFC295.
“I was respectful. … I think that’s a fight everyone wants to see.” pic.twitter.com/xPR7rdcMzo
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) November 12, 2023
In the interview with MMA journalists after the event, Pereira responded to the tweet from Adesanya. He stated (translated by a member from his camp): “I was respectful….he doesn’t seem motivated. I think that’s a fight everyone wants to see.”
The comments from Pereira referred to the recent timeline of the return shared by Adesanya. The former two-time UFC middleweight champion revealed that he will return in 2027 which caught some fans by surprise. The long gap was addressed by Pereira when he commented on the motivation of his bitter rival.
Dana White revealed the next opponent of Alex Pereira
Amidst this back and forth between Adesanya and Pereira, Dana White came out and revealed the next opponent of the new champion. The CEO of UFC spoke at the UFC 295 post-fight press conference about Pereira’s call-out.
White commented: “Israel is a weight class below him now! But we’ve seen that. Yeah, Jamahall Hill when he is ready is the fight that makes sense.” As per the big boss, Adesanya’s weight class and history with Pereira put him below the pecking order for now.
For White, former 205-pound champion, Jamahal Hill is a tastier prospect for Alex Pereira. Hill is currently on a four-match win streak, with the latest win recorded in UFC 283 over Glover Teixeira. Hill has a record of 12-1-0 (1 NC) in UFC.
The latest comments from Adesanya, as well as Dana White, confirm that the highly anticipated trilogy has to wait for now. Meanwhile, the stock of Alex Pereira has never been higher with a dominant display against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295.