Israel Adesanya wanted to give advice to Alex Pereira for his fight against Jan Blanchowicz at UFC 291.
Israel Adesanya reclaimed his middleweight title from Alex Pereira last April at UFC 287 with a stunning second-round knockout. Following his loss, Pereira announced that he wanted to move up to light heavyweight, and his first fight in that category will be against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 in July.
‘The Last Stylebender’ and ‘Poatan’ recently crossed paths at an airport and Adesanya took the opportunity to slip Pereira some valuable advice for his future fight against Blachowicz (via the Impaulsive podcast):
“We chatted, we went through security, we took off our shoes, we waited for our bags to come through, and we talked – I was there: ‘Jan is next, yeah?’ He fights the guy which was my first loss in MMA, when I moved up to light heavyweight. He has the same idea as me.
“Even with our limited conversation skills, because of his English and my Portuguese, we kind of had the same idea of what was going to happen. But I have to tell him that I thought the same when I fought Jan. I thought Jan was going to attack me a little more, that he was going to be aggressive, but he was patient. So I let him know that he also needed to be patient. I didn’t want to say too much, but yes, I told him that. »
Israel Adesanya lost to Jan Blanchowicz by unanimous decision in March 2021 at UFC 259 and it was effectively the first loss of his pro career. He has since lost another time to Alex Pereira at UFC 281 in November 2022.
Is it wild that Adesanya and Pereira are comparing notes on a common opponent after everything that’s gone on between them? After Adesanya mocked Pereira’s son in such a public way after winning their last fight? “Poatan” was pretty matter-of-fact about the run-in, and said there was never the possibility of a rumble.
“If I were to fight him again [in the UFC], we would have a rivalry,” Pereira said shortly after their airport run-in. “But now, why? We’ll meet. Adesanya, he’s there with a teammate, I’m in the same spot. And we can’t [see each other] because we’ll destroy the whole place and beat each other up? That doesn’t exist. That type of rivalry doesn’t exist with me.”
