Israel Adesanya Says Sean Strickland Poses A Bigger Threat Than Alex Pereira

Israel Adesanya defends his belt for the fifth time this weekend at UFC 276, but two fights before the main event, there is a number one contender fight for the middleweight title.

In the featured bout of UFC 276, No. 4 ranked middleweight Sean Strickland takes on unranked elite kickboxer Alex Pereira. While the UFC brass hasn’t said it, the winner of this fight could be fighting for the title with a win.

In a recent interview with Stake, ‘Stylebender’ said that Strickland poses the biggest challenge of the two.

“Strickland poses the most threat. That fight definitely excites me,” Adesanya said. “Strickland would be a good dance partner before and during the fight and I’m sure after the fight as well.”

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A post shared by Israel Adesanya (@stylebender)

While Adesanya thinks Strickland poses the greatest threat, he has some history with Pereira. Pereira is the only man to brutally knock Adesanya out in kickboxing; the UFC middleweight champion is actually excited for a potential fight. And he says people forgot how the fight went before he got finished.

“Alex excites me because of the arc in that story. He’s the only guy to knock me out at kickboxing,” Adesanya said. “This generation forgets because we’re the Tik Tok generation and they don’t actually do their research, but if you look at those fights that we fought, we know who the more skilled fighter is and who the better fighter is. I don’t call it a lucky shot. He just timed me right and got me on the day. But today is a new day.”

“I don’t need revenge, I just want to fu*k this guy up who people think beat me.  It’s what I’ve always done; [Paulo] Costa, [Yoel] Romero, Robert [Whittaker], [Derek] Brunson – everyone was talking shit before those fights saying this is the guy to beat me. And then what did I do? I f*cked them up, so let’s just keep doing what I do.”

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A post shared by Israel Adesanya (@stylebender)

The future is exciting for sure, but before any of this happens, Adesanya has to get through Jared Cannonier. The champion isn’t worried about Cannonier, though, because he plans on putting on a showcase.

“I’m going to fu*k him up. It’s going to be bad. It’s going to be a showcase. Mark my words, save this tweet, save this interview, whoever is listening – come back to the comments and talk shit after I fu*k him up.”

Stick to MiddleEasy for all of your UFC 276 coverage.

Published on June 29, 2022 at 2:26 pm

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