As Alex Pereira continues to grow as a mixed martial artist, the new UFC light heavyweight champion has now opened the door to possibly train with Israel Adesanya. Pereira took to Instagram to upload a video of a past interview from Adesanya and his thoughts on the matter.
“This is not personal with Israel Adesanya,” Pereira said on Instagram. “I would even train with him in the future, but Adesanya gotta watch this video so he will never underestimate someone’s potential again!”
Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya’s Rich History
These two rivals have no lack of experience competing against one another. From the earliest days in GLORY to their intense rivalry inside the UFC, fans have come to love the rivalry between the two.
Most recently, Adesanya lost his UFC middleweight championship to the hands of Sean Strickland and announced that he will be stepping away from the sport for a while. On the flip side Pereira defied the odds once again and defeated Jiri Prochazka to become the UFC light heavyweight champion. Following the fight, Pereira took the time on the mic to address Adesanya.
“I’m not the type of guy to call people out, but there’s a guy that back in the day did some interview [and] say that I was going to be some guy that just [stays] in a bar. So that [motivated] me. He rescued me from a bar to be here today,” Pereira said in the UFC 295 post fight Octagon interview. “This guy says that he just [wants] to come back [to] fight in 2027. I think he’s a really talented guy, it’s a waste of talent. I want to rescue him to come back and fight.”
Training with His Former Opponents
While Adesanya has not responded, the thought of the two ever training together could be far-fetched, but not impossible. Pereira in the past has trained with his former opponents, most notably Sean Strickland. While their fight ended with a knockout landed by ‘Poatan’ the two put the fight behind them and seemingly got some very beneficial work together. Strickland went on to capture the UFC middleweight championship following their training sessions.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
