You can’t always win them all, but for Israel Adesanya, his next fight he must win.
The UFC Middleweight Champion is set to headline UFC 281, where he faces a big challenge in ‘The Big Apple’. For his next title defense, Adesanya will take on his greatest rival Alex Pereira.
Adesanya has quite the history with Pereira, with the Brazilian beating him twice in the kickboxing ring. Pereira would also be the first and only man to KO Adesanya when they met for a rematch in 2017. Years later, Pereira looks for another repeat but this time inside the Octagon.
‘Forget Every Other Fight’
‘The Last Stylebender’ knows he has to do everything it takes to avenge those losses to Pereira and redeem himself once and for all. Adesanya has had no shortage of high-stake fights in his title run but this one in particular, he’s holding up higher than any other.
“I was watching Claressa Shields and Floyd Mayweather talk on FaceTime when he fought Pacquiao. He said got up from the seat for every round. He always just thought like, ‘Forget every other fight. If there’s ever a fight I have to win, it’s this one,'” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel.
“I feel that,” Adesanya added. “That’s me right now. If there’s ever a fight, I have to win, it’s this one. That’s why everything is different this camp. There’s no excuses. If there’s ever a fight I have to win, it’s this one.”
Israel Adesanya is in the zone, arguably more than ever, in the lead-up to the biggest fight of his story. In addition to his latest comments, the current champ even said ‘f*ck the belt’… he’s only focused on beating Alex Pereira on Nov. 12.
