By Daily Sports Nigeria on February 24, 2023

Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has explained why he lost his championship belt to Alex Pereira at UFC 281 at the Madison Square Garden last November.

Adesanya had been dominant in the middleweight division until Pereira’s arrival. The two warriors faced off in a mixed martial arts match, which marked their first MMA encounter but the third overall including their kickboxing battles.

Despite Adesanya leading the match entering the fifth round, Pereira knew that only a finish could secure their victory, as they proclaimed before the final round. With bravery and determination, Pereira entered the fifth round and defeated Adesanya by technical knockout, becoming the new middleweight champion.

‘The Last Stylebender’ revealed he couldn’t recover from the hits he took to the leg against the Brazilian fighter.

“Alex fought really well. I hurt his leg, but he beat mine off in such a way that I couldn’t recover. I also had some problems that I had to solve before the fight, but everyone goes to fight with something. You know, we always run into some kind of problem when we train,” Adesanya said.

A rematch between Adesanya and Pereira has been officially announced for April 8 at the FTX Arena in Miami, United States.

While the Nigerian-born fighter’s coach and other experts like Daniel Cormier have questioned the timing of the rematch coming too soon, Adesanya is 100 per cent determined to face Pereira next and it looks like he will have his wish.

Source Punch Ng

Posted February 24, 2023

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