Phil Hawes delivered his prediction for ‘The Last Stylebender’s’ next UFC title defense this fall.
On November 12th, Israel Adesanya will return to the Octagon to defend his UFC middleweight world championship against a familiar face in Alex Pereira.
While Pereira is a relative newcomer to the UFC with just three victories inside the Octagon, his history with ‘The Last Stylebender’ has been at the forefront of the world title showdown scheduled to headline UFC 281. ‘Poatan’ has met Adesanya on two separate occasions under the GLORY Kickboxing banner. Alex Pereira won both contests and is currently the only man to knock out Israel Adesanya in his combat sports career, a feat he accomplished in their 2017 rematch.
Speaking to The Schmo, UFC middleweight Phil Hawes shared his thoughts on the upcoming title bout and how he sees things playing out this November.
“Izzy is really good, you know and I can see him being crazy enough to even try to attempt a takedown. I mean, I could expect that from Izzy because he’s crazy, you know what I mean? He’s an entertainer. I can see him doing something like that, but I think he gets it out. I think he squeaks by.”
Phil Hawes Talks About ‘Peculiar’ Sean Strickland vs. Jared Cannonier
During his conversation with The Schmo, Phil Hawes was also asked about the bit middleweight clash between No. 4 ranked contender Sean Strickland and the No. 2 ranked Jared Cannonier scheduled for December 17th.
“That’s a really good fight. Both of those guys, they’re tough. They’re cool. Strickland’s a little weird, you know how it is. Yeah, it’s gonna be a fight.”
Asked what he meant by calling Sean Strickland “weird,” Phil Hawes opted to skirt around the question, offering up another adjective to describe the middleweight contender.
“Peculiar. There we go. Peculiar.”
Winner in eight of his last nine bouts, Phil Hawes will return to the Octagon on October 29th against Roman Dolidze. In his last outing, ‘No Hype’ scored a second-round knockout of Deron Winn
