Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya still insists that his headline clash with Alex Pereira at UFC 281 was stopped too early. Appearing on The MMA Hour, Adesanya expanded on his claim that he was still lucid in the Octagon despite eating a series of massive power shots from his opponent.
“I don’t blame the referee. Marc did a good job, but you see it when I get up. I’m fine. I was lucid. I didn’t get rocked rocked. I got hit hit against the fence and my thought was, ‘Escape, laterally, either left or right.’ I went right and as I was going right — it wasn’t because I was rocked, it was my foot. You know the perineal [nerve]? It happened to Michael Chandler, [Henry] Cejudo, our boy, Jimmy Crute, it happened to him as well.”
Adesanya Details UFC 281 Stoppage
So at some point in the fight, I’m trying to move. You know when you’re walking and your leg trips and it drags on the floor accidentally? I was getting that through the fight, and I’m like, ‘Is something wrong with my leg?’ And eventually I was like, ‘Oh s***, I think my leg is that thing.’ I’ve never had it happen to me in a fight before, ever, but I knew what it was. So he hit me with two big shots, lateral move, and then I tripped. So it looked bad.
I think the referee was like, ‘Two big shots and he wobbles, oh s***.’ It wasn’t from the shots, I promise you. There’s no reason for me to lie. It was from the legs, which he caused, the damage.”
Adesanya continued, claiming that he was “waiting for [Pereira to gas out” in the final round of their fight. “So I was like, ‘OK, stand there, stand there, just don’t move anymore, let him gas out.’
So I was waiting for him to take big shots, so I put my head down; I could see his arms and I could see his legs. That’s all I needed to look at. I know where his head is. So I’m just there moving, moving, moving.
But to the referee, after two big shots and then I wobble, and I’m standing there looking like that, he’s going to be like, ‘Nah.’ And he’s being safe. So when he jumped in I’m like, ‘I’m fine. Aw, f***.’ I was literally just disappointed. I was waiting for him to gas out so I can do my work. I was going to take him down and then beat him up again.”
Do you think UFC 281 was an early stop or did the ref make the right call? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqJZTxRnJd0
