Israel Adesanya finally had the last laugh against his arch nemesis Alex Pereira. The win should be embarrassing for Pereira since he tried to take a dig at Adesanya at the UFC 287 pre-match press conference. He tried to poke fun at Adesanya by wearing a jacket with Pikachu’s face on it.
The move has backfired massively. Adesanya landed a brutal knockout blow to reclaim his middleweight throne. With what he claimed to be his last shot at redemption against Pereira, ‘The Last Stylebender’ has surely redeemed himself, and boy he did it spectacularly.
The History between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya
Things were awry for Adesanya up until this bout. Contrary to his immensely successful career, the Nigerian-born New Zealander struggled against Pereira. The two have a long history. They came across each other twice in their kickboxing career. Pereira clinched victory over Adesanya on both occasions. Their careers diverged into two different paths later on. Pereira eventually claimed the Glory Kickboxing title whereas Adesanya cemented himself as one of the modern greats, claiming the middleweight title.
However, Pereira hunted his rival down and followed him to UFC. He even earned a title shot after just eight fights, poetically against Adesanya. To Adesanya’s misery ‘Poatan’ snatched the title from Adesanya on the very first attempt.
History indicates that there is a lot of bad blood between these two. Which is why Pereira came up with different dogs whenever he could. A usually reticent fighter, Pereira, always comes alive against his arch-rival. In turn, he donned a jacket with Pikachu’s face on it. One can connect the dots and consider this a dig since Adesanya is a massive anime fan.
Alex Pereira knew exactly what he was doing rocking up to the UFC 287 media day like this đ
đž: @dannyseguratv #UFC287 | Saturday | BT Sport 1 pic.twitter.com/EKr2KJyvv3
â UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) April 5, 2023
Then again, Pereira claimed that it was not any part of mind games. He just liked the jacket as it matched his pants. The Brazilian middleweight then disclosed that this was gifted by a social media content creator Nina Drama after his interview. In fact, after shooting a comedy skit with Pereira, Nina gave her several Pikachu-themed plush toys.
Adesanya did not take it kindly. He was incensed with his arch-rival attire. Adesanya later posted a meme adding, “I heard you like PokĂ©mon. Catch deez!”
@mmafighting Alex Pereira explains why he wore a Pikachu jacket to UFC 287 media day đ #alexpereira #ufc #ufc287 #mma #pikachu #pokemon #israeladesanya
The Kiwi middleweight ensured that Pereira would not be able to catch that, let alone his knockout punch. Adesanya should finally sleep in peace and despite Pereira’s success against Adesanya, he will think twice about taking further digs at his rival.
