After finally getting over the hump against Alex Pereira at UFC 287 , Israel Adesanya admittedly had no issue with being petty.
In the moments immediately after his second-round knockout of “Poatan” at the Kaseya Center in Miami on Saturday, Adesanya pointed to the Brazilian’s son in the crowd and collapsed to the canvas. The taunt was a response to a similar move Pereira’s son did in the ring some six years earlier after the Brazilian knocked out Adesanya in a kickboxing match.
“I’m petty,” Adesanya said at the UFC 287 post-fight press conference. “I remember. The first time he knocked me out in Brazil, his son came into the ring and then just started to lie dead next to me. I’m like, ‘You f—-ing little a—hole, I’ll whoop your ass if your dad don’t do it for you.’ I looked for his kid, I pointed at him, and I saw him and I was like, ‘Hey, hey, hey,’ just to remind him.”
Pereira, who previously defeated Adesanya at UFC 281 to capture the middleweight belt, responded to his rival’s gesture in a video interview on his YouTube channel. If Pereira were in the same position, he says would’ve taken the high road.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t do the same,” Pereira said. “I can play with him like I’ve always played. I’ve teased him, but I don’t know, he’s another child. I don’t know what his feelings were. He was enduring this for seven years and I saw his joy after the knockout. That was his dream. That was his dream and he made it, but we’re comparing him with a child who was 5 years old at the time, right?
“I don’t have that mind. I can prove it because today he’s 12 years old and before the fight I saw that he was being influenced by other people, sometimes he even participated in some interviews and some reporters asked [my son], ‘Are you going to do this again?’ and he laughed. He’s a kid and he thinks it’s funny.”
According to Pereira, he prevented his son from doing a similar celebration following his victory at UFC 281 last November.
“I knocked him out, I won the belt, and my kid wanted to do the same thing up there,” Pereira said. “I told him, ‘No, stop, don’t do it. Stay here, don’t do anything.’ I’m a conscious guy about everything I’m saying here, and I wouldn’t do it. If he did it and felt better that way, ok, it’s a relief he had. And if he thinks it’s better for him, ok, that won’t change anything for me.”
Despite differing views on the post-fight antics, there doesn’t appear to be any lingering bad blood between the two rivals, as they shared a respectful moment backstage. During that conversation, Adesanya broached the subject of potentially training with Pereira.
“If we’ll train together or not it’s up to him. I’m always willing to be good with everyone,” Pereira said. “I’m sure those kicks are very good, they hurt. He knows that. I see a fight there in the third round there, he would hardly make it to the end, maybe it wouldn’t go beyond the third. I’m willing to do anything. I want to be good with everybody. I don’t have a rivalry with anyone. I’m not a rival of Adesanya. He hadn’t won any fights [against me] and he had this feeling. Maybe today after having one victory over me maybe he will change his mind. If it changes, it will be cool.”
The next move for the former Glory two-division champion remains unclear, though speculation has been that he could move to 205 pounds in the future. Pereira didn’t comment on a potential change in weight class, but he did vow to bounce back from his first UFC defeat.
“All the people who are following me since kickboxing, they know I am a hard worker and dedicated,” Pereira said. “I never quit. And for the people who arrived now, it’s a new phase: MMA, UFC. You can think, ‘How will this guy come back?’ Guys, I promise you, I’m going to come firm and strong. I’m going to come stronger than ever. You can write this down.
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