Alex Pereira has Israel Adesanya’s number in kickboxing, and now the Brazilian knockout artist likewise has his competitor’s UFC middleweight champion.
Pereira resisted out from a sluggish start and rocked Adesanya in the 5th round to score the TKO win and declare the 185 pounds champion in the primary occasion of UFC 281 on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
The 35- year-old Pereira beat Adesanya two times– when by knockout– in their kickboxing days and the wins got the opposition fast-tracked to a championship after simply 3 UFC battles.
” For everyone that stated I could not do 5 rounds, take a look at what I did recently,” Pereira stated after the battle.
Pereira topped his quick increase to the title in front of a Garden crowd going wild as he tagged Adesanya with a vicious right that sent out the champ into the cage and after that socked him with a hook. Adesanya, the Nigeria-born, New Zealand-raised fighter, dropped versus the cage and Pereira opted for the ending up blows however referee Marc Goddard stopped the bout at 2: 01 in the 5th.
Knocked sometimes for his systematic design, the 31- year-old Adesanya (23 -2) referred to as “The Last Stylebender” got the MSG crowd on his side when he clobbered Pereira with a pounding right and after that a quick left hand to the face that ended the preliminary and sent out the opposition reeling.
Trying to get rid of the whipping, Pereira stood and beckoned fans to get louder as he waited on the bell to indicate the 2nd. He raised his arms once again to the sellout crowd of 20,845, just this time in success.
Adesanya had actually been champion considering that 2019 and his loss snapped his 12- combat win streak at middleweight, just one shy of Anderson Silva’s department record.
Elsewhere on Saturday night, Zhang Weili won the 115- belt for a 2nd time and UFC’s very first Chinese champ made fast work versus Carla Esparza with a rear naked choke submission at 1: 05 of the 2nd round