Israel Adesanya looks set to meet Alex Pereira, after both men were victorious, and the Brazilian is the only man to have ever knocked out the UFC middleweight champion, as you can see in the video below.
Adesanya competed in the latest defence of his middleweight title on Saturday night, in Las Vegas, as he easily defeated Jared Cannonier in an unanimous decision victory.
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It was a fairly routine win for the Last Stylebender, who has seemingly defeated everyone there is to face in the division, after winning the undisputed title from Robert Whittaker in 2019 and defending it five times.
After beating everyone within ranking distance of him, Adesanya is expected to meet Pereira, who wasn't ranked by UFC before Saturday night.
The Brazilian had only had two fights in the promotion ahead of the event at the T-Mobile Arena but his power and reputation gave him a huge opportunity on Saturday.
Pereira met fourth ranked Sean Strickland, and stopped the American just over two and a half minutes into the opening round of the fight, with a couple of huge shots.
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That win is expected to get him a high ranking, when the list comes out at the beginning of next week, and it should put him in line to face his old rival.
The pair have previously fought twice, before either got to UFC, in kickboxing contests for Glory of Heroes, with the Brazilian coming out on top in both.
Their first meeting came in 2016, when Pereira ended the Nigerian born New Zealander's 12 fight winning streak with a points decision at Glory of Heroes 1.
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Just under a year later, in Adesanya's final kick boxing fight before moving to MMA permanently, Pereira handed the 32-year-old his only ever KO loss.
The Brazilian landed with a left hook to end the contest, the same shot he got Strickland with initially, before following it up with a right.
"Look we know who’s next," Adesanya said in the middle of the octagon after his relatively easy win over Cannonier, "Trust me, the first time I told you, it was an error on my part spamming the right hand and that was in kickboxing.
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"It’s easy to knockout, what’s the hillbilly’s name [Strickland] because he was parrying the jabs but like I said at the press conference, the next time I put you on skates, you’re going to get frozen like Elsa."
The next time Adesanya is in the octagon, things could be a lot spicier than Saturday night.
Topics: UFC, MMA, Israel Adesanya, Kickboxing
Ryan Sidle