Israel Adesanya, the strongest UFC middleweight player…
Israel Adesanya, the strongest UFC middleweight player, will he catch his past natural enemy?
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (33, Nigeria-New Zealand) will play a special title match. UFC 281 ‘Adesanya vs. Adesanya’ will be standing at Madison Square in New York on the 13th (Korea Standard Time). The “Fereira” main event is Alex Pereira (35, Brazil), the fourth-ranked middleweight.
Pereira is personally a bad opponent for Adesanya, who is in the sixth defense of the title. This is because he lost twice on the kickboxing stage. It is clear that it is an unforgettable disgrace for Adesanya, who is proud to be the best striker following Anderson Silva, who is currently enjoying his heyday.
The first defeat was in China in 2016. He lost the decision after a neck-and-neck race, but Adesanya was upset that he won the game, but lost because of the wrong decision. However, the shocking situation occurred in the second round of the following year. In the match in Brazil, Adesanya was more aggressive as if he were conscious of the decision of the previous match.
Adesanya, whose blood was hot, continued to exert strong pressure. But Ferreira was cool. He did not miss Adesanya’s gap, which was focused only on the attack, and finished the game with KO by hitting the left hook. The defeat at that time remained the only KO loss in Adesanya’s 105 professional fighting sports to this day. Therefore, the more Adesanya was on a roll, the more the tag “Fereira remained” was bound to follow.
After the match, Adesanya left the kickboxing stage and advanced to MMA. Ferreira, on the other hand, continued to play as a standing fighter, becoming a two-weight champion in Glory Kickboxing Middleweight and Light Heavyweight. Of course, the stage where the two will play is Octagon. No matter how previously Pereira won by a landslide, his status in the aggregate is incomparable.
However, as can be seen in the cases of Matt Hughes and Dennis Holman, there is a so-called “natural enemy relationship” in martial arts, so you don’t know what will happen if the two of them compete. It is said that unexpectedness can occur, which is why even more attention is being paid. For Adesanya, who wants to be reborn as the best champion in middleweight history, it is necessary to beat Pereira and prove that things have changed now.