A spectacular knockout in the second round was it. israel adesana he needed to defeat his longtime nemesis alex pereira and exorcise a demon.
Adesanya suffered a controversial points loss to Pereira in their first fight, a kickboxing match. In her rematch, also kickboxing, Adesanya was leading but was knocked out. In November 2022, in her first MMA matchup, Adesanya was again in front, but was defeated in the final round.
On Sunday, on his fourth attempt, Adesanya, affectionately known as The Last Stylebender, finally earned his win over Pereira, and impressively with a knockout at 4:21 of Round 2.
At the end of the fight, Adesanya said he was “playing possum” against the fence, waiting a moment to attack.
And when it hit, it hit. It was a clean right hook out of the blue, and it still stunned Pereira. The next shot was another right hook to drop Pereira.
A hammer fist and the fight was stopped, but Pereira was already unconscious after the second hook.
In the end, Adesanya made good on what was likely his last chance to beat Pereira and improved his MMA fight record to 24-2 (13-2 UFC), while Pereira (7-2 MMA) suffered his first defeat in UFC (4-1 UFC).
