UFC middleweight champion Alex “Poatan” Pereira wants to defend his title sooner rather than later. The most likely matchup for Pereira is the man he dethroned, Israel Adesanya, but the towering Brazilian told MMAFighting that he is open to the possibility that his old foe is not interested in another fight. If that’s the case, he wants another former champion, Australia’s Robert Whittaker.
“I see these two guys. Adesanya was a dominant champion so he has the preference to be competing for the belt again, but if he doesn’t want that, it will be Whittaker. I don’t think they’ll put someone else in other than Whittaker. He already said his game doesn’t match well with Adesanya but would be a good fight with me, so I’ll be ready for both.”
Alex Pereira Wants Whittaker if Adesanya Ducks Rematch
Pereira continued, pointing out that there are plenty of fighters in the middleweight division who want their shot at UFC gold. “I won’t do anything to hurt Adesanya’s plans and avoid this fight.
If that’s what he wants, we’ll fight. If for some reason he doesn’t want to fight me, that makes no difference to me, it’ll be Whittaker instead. And if Whittaker doesn’t want it, there are several others that do.”
As for his rivalry with Adesanya, Pereira is not particularly concerned. Pereira defeated Adesanya twice when the two were competing under the GLORY kickboxing banner. In the fight for the UFC title, Adesanya was ahead on all judges’ scorecards. However, in the final round of the fight, “Poatan” earned his nickname – Brazilian Portuguese for “stone hands” – with a series of brutal strikes to Adesanya’s head. The TKO marked the first loss at middleweight for Israel Adesanya, and a third victory for Pereira across two sports against “The Last Stylebender”.
“I try to forget what has happened. If we think about having three wins over someone and think it’s going to be easy — I said it before the [third fight] that it makes no difference, I can’t cross my arms and expect him to go out in front of me. He’ll always try to evolve and come a better fighter, and I have to be better than last time to be fighting this guy because it will be a tough fight.”
Do you think Israel Adesanya will be first in line to face Pereira, or will we see Robert Whittaker attempt to reclaim UFC gold first? Let us know in the comments.
