Alex Pereira: Israel Adesanya’s performance at UFC 276 ‘did not excite me’

Alex Pereira all but assured himself of a middleweight title shot with his first-round knockout of Sean Strickland at UFC 276.

While the former two-division Glory champion had a breakout performance on the biggest stage of his MMA career to date, reigning 185-pound king Israel Adesanya did not draw rave reviews for his five-round verdict over Jared Cannonier in the evening’s headliner.

“It did not excite me, and it did not excite the crowd,” Pereira said at the UFC 276 post-fight press conference. “I was very sad to see that. I hope when we fight he do a better fight than that. But for sure I am going make him fight to give it a better show to the crowd.”

While Pereira has just three UFC victories to his credit, his two victories over Adesanya in professional kickboxing have made a showdown between the rivals a logical next step in the middleweight championship picture. Adesanya acknowledged as much in the aftermath of his latest title defense.

“Look we know who’s next,” Adesanya said. “Trust me, the first time I told you, it was an error on my part spamming the right hand and that was in kickboxing.

“It’s easy to knockout, what’s the hillbilly’s name [Strickland], because he was parrying the jabs but like I said at the press conference, the next time I put you on skates, you’re going to get frozen like Elsa.”

As for Pereira, he emerged from his fight relatively unscathed and is ready to began preparation for a third meeting with Adesanya — this time in the Octagon.

“Whenever he’s ready,” Pereira said. “I just finished my fight. I am fine. I can start training tomorrow. I’m going to take two weeks to enjoy my life a little bit. Whenever he’s ready. I’m good.”