Henry Cejudo is laying out what Israel Adesanya must do to beat Alex Pereira.
All eyes are on the top of the UFC middleweight divisions heading into UFC 281. The 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya will be taking on the only man to have ever defeated him twice when he faces off against Alex Pereira on Saturday night. So much has been made of the history between these two men. Adesanya has been at the top of the UFC middleweight division for years and has never lost in that division during his professional MMA career. Pereira is newer to the sport of MMA but has two victories over the champ in kickboxing. The bulk of the conversation in MMA media this week has been about whether or not Adesanya can get it done against his former foe.
One man who knows how to get it done in a fight is former two-division champion Henry Cejudo. He took to his YouTube channel to break down the skills of Adesanya and explain how he thinks his prowess stands up against Pereira.
Henry Cejudo thinks this will be another kickboxing bout between Adesanya and Pereira
Cejudo was grading Adesanya in three different categories, technique, tactics, and threshold. He believes that Adesanya has the skills to defeat Pereira but thinks it will be another stand-up war. He also feels that Adesanya cannot resort to his same old tricks against Pereira.
“Israel’s a competitor, he has, I don’t know how many fights that he has. His threshold is good. You know, but this is that one area where I feel like if you can add a little more stuff, and not just fight everybody similar because you are going to fight an Alex Pereira, who is out there to take your head off and you know, this is going to be another kickboxing match. Do you have the tactics? Are you going to have the tactics to beat a guy and really gameplan and beat somebody tactically?”
Cejudo thinks that this will be a striking-based bout and that there may not be too much wrestling involved. With that being said he cannot overlook the only loss that Adesanya has in his mixed martial arts career. He lost a light heavyweight bout to Jan Blachowicz which showed some holes in Adesanya’s game.
“He did get taken down by Jan, and whatnot,” he said. “Let’s not forget about that loss either and he wasn’t able to get back to his feet. I mean, Jan pretty much beat him on his feet too.”
Cejudo has been breaking down fights on his YouTube channel ever since he retired from the sport. He has an amazing fight IQ and has interesting takes on most of his breakdowns. He feels that Adesanya can do enough to win this fight and is picking the champ to retain the title at UFC 281.
