Miami, FL – The UFC middleweight king doesn’t buy the narrative that his opponent dominated their first MMA fight until the very end, but Alex Pereira looks to prove that Israel Adesanya.
“People say sometimes like he dominated me (in the first fight) and maybe if Israel want to see that way. I see a little bit different because was more details. I was winning the first round before I took those two shots. If you look at round 2 I clearly won. Round 3 I was growing into the fight,” Pereira told reporters through a translator on Wednesday.
“So in his head if he wants to believe that he can beat me by decision ok, but I believe I can do too.”
The list of challengers should Pereira be successful in defending the belt at UFC 287 is long enough to keep him busy for the rest of the year. He did have something to say about three specific fighters that have called him out including Robert Whittaker, Paulo Costa and the popular Khamzat Chimaev.
“Well this week I’m obviously focused on Israel, but talk about Whittaker and Paulo Costa, I know they want to fight me. They were never disrespectful. They always kept their composure. When they talk about Chimaev he’s the kind of guy that seems to be a little lost. Talks too much. Right after my last fight he said that he want to fight me,” he said.
Pereira pointed out that Chimaev asked for the fight right after he won the title thus not allowing for enough time to recover and cut to 185-pounds once again.
“So I challenged him to fight at 205 pounds. (He) ran. To be honest if it’s Whittaker or Paulo Costa, if the organization wants to put us to fight, it’s my job to fight as the UFC champion,” said Pereira.
“But I (don’t) even want to talk about Chimaev.”
Pereira is one of the bigger middleweights on the roster leaving many to wonder how he makes championship weight. The current champion knows that at some point he’ll have to move up a division.
“People say that I’m big that I’m too heavy for this division,” Pereira said before pointing out that he cut more weight than he does now when he was kickboxing.
“I always did (it) without a problem. Right now I’m focused on making history and reigning as a champion in this division. Later on the road my body is going to tell me when it’s time to move up, and I’m going to wait on that.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Alex Pereira above. He headlines UFC 287 against Israel Adesanya on Saturday night in Miami, FL.
