Adesanya has been doing laps around the middleweight division but this might all change if he’s forced to meet former kickboxing foe Alex Pereira. Pereira is pretty big in stature. Here’s him next to teammate – former light heavyweight UFC champion Glover Teixeira.
Adesanya previously addressed his old kickboxing foe saying:
“They keep saying, oh it’s too fast, it’s too fast. I’m like they know what they’re doing. They’re pushing him so he can get that fight with me, and I’m like, cool. I welcome it. I look forward to this.”
“I don’t think you understand how many times I’ve visualized this, and I know exactly what I’m gonna do as well. Even if the referee tries to take me off, I’m gonna tell him let me have my moment. This is my moment, and they can’t take me off him. I’m gonna stand there and just own it.”
“This isn’t kickboxing, this is mixed martial arts,” Adesanya said during a UFC 276 Press Conference. “These ain’t big pillow gloves, these are four ounce deadly weapons that I can’t wait to drive through his face after I go through Jared Cannonier.”
But Pereira threw back to their old matchup and poked a big hole in Adesanya’s logic.
“With the big pillow [gloves], I already made him leave on a stretcher, so imagine what is going to happen with the four ounce [gloves].”
Adesanya will attempt to make his sixth championship defense against Jared Cannonier on July 2 at UFC 276. At the same event, Sean Strickland will aim to showcase his abilities against Alex Pereira.