Alex Pereira is the new middleweight champion after beating Nigerian and his longtime rival Israel Adesanya with a stunning fifth-round knockout. It was just Pereira’s fourth fight in the UFC and just when it looked like he was staring down a loss, he decided to come after Adesanya with everything knowing that Nigeria was well ahead of him in points.
A left hook staggered Adesanya and that spelt the beginning of the end as Alex Pereira just unloaded a barrage of punches continuously. Israel Adesanya fell to the ground for a moment but managed to stagger back to his feet only for Pereira to continue to knock out punches until referee Marc Goddard saw enough to rescue the Nigerian fighter before he took further damage.
Speaking after his victory, he said: “I feel so blessed.” “I worked so hard for this. Sorry to everybody that I had to post some stuff, I had to do a little bit of trash talk this time. But I had to get in his head to get this fight.”