Israel Adesanya established himself in the kickboxing community before winning the middleweight title in the UFC. Many people rank Adesanya as one of the all-time best UFC champions.
However Adesanya had a kickboxing foe that would go on to best him twice – Alex Poatan Pereira.
The odds favor Israel Adesanya to defeat Alex Pereira in their upcoming UFC 281 contest. However, Adesanya disagreed with those odds despite having successfully defended his middleweight title five times.
Adesanya made the following remarks during the UFC 281 media event:
“I saw it last night, I was like, why am I the favorite in this on the betting odds? I never check them, but I just happened to see something on Instagram and I was like, how the f**k am I the favorite?”
“I feel like we should change that or something. How can you change that? Fake an injury? I think people should bet on him on this fight. See what happens.”
Later, Adesanya reiterated, adding:
“He should be the favorite. I don’t know why – these betting people, whoever makes these odds sometimes – I just think he should be the favorite in this fight.”
Adesanya suffered his first and only knockout defeat in his combat sports career in their last match.
Prior to UFC 281, Adesanya spoke with the media and said:
“I cleared the middleweight division so I cleared path for him directly to me… without me he wouldn’t be here. There’s no way… All these motherf**kers are trying to live off me. They all try to live off my name, my fame, but this is my game and I know how to play this game. I’m the game master in this s**t so I’ll show them when it comes.”
Adesanya has a sizable edge over his opponent in experience since this will be just his seventh mixed martial arts bout . This is Pereira’s 4th outing in UFC having spent just over a year on the roster.