Alex Pereira son (Credits: MMA Squad, YouTube)
Watch: Alex Pereira’s son talk about mocking Israel Adesanya following KO loss
Perhaps the most anticipated PPV events on the calendar for 2022 is only a few days away. The main event pits current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya against kickboxing rival Alex Pereira. The stacked card includes two title fights as well as some exciting fights between some of the sport’s most exciting talents and some of the game’s most established names.
Alex Pereira, a Brazilian kickboxing prodigy, faced Adesanya twice in the kickboxing ring and defeated him both times. Pereira met Adesanya for the first time in April 2016 at Glory of Heroes 1. After three rounds, ‘Poatan’ outperformed Adesanya and won by unanimous decision.
The competitors met again a year later, at Glory of Heroes 15. Pereira won the rematch with a more decisive victory. After some initial success inside the boxing ring for Adesanya, the ‘Stylebender’ boldly stepped inside Pereira’s range on a regular basis. As soon as Adesanya moved inside range after landing the left high-kick that knocked him out cold, Pereria landed a perfectly calculated left hook.
If the stinging loss wasn’t enough, Pereira’s son who accompanied his father in the post-fight celebrations inside the ring, mocked Adesanya for the KO loss by pretending to be out cold.
Years later, in the second episode of the Embedded series for UFC 281, ‘Poatan’s son spoke about the incident:
“I got into the ring with a bottle and was mimicking what my father did to that guy. I hit the plastic bottle on my head and fell to the ground.”
He was also seen speaking to his brother in the video:
“Not one more guy, the same guy for the third time.”
Within three fights under the UFC banner, Alex Pereira has achieved the unprecedented feat of landing a title shot when he faces Israel Adesanya at UFC 281.
Adesanya’s coach had claimed that it was unfair to give Pereira the title shot with just three victories in the UFC. Pereira reacted to these comments in a recent episode of MMA Fighting podcast Trocação Franca:
“Right after it was announced that my next fight would be for the belt against him, he and his whole team said it was a bit unfair that I was fighting for the belt because I just got here, that Adesanya did so many fights and I should do the same. Man, I’m just hearing that and taking it as something positive for me. That shows me he pretended he wanted [to fight me] and when I got here, his whole team was against it. That shows all of them, he and his team are mentally shook.”
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