November 12 saw one of the most anticipated UFC pay-per-views of the year come and go: UFC 281. The card featured several stand-out fights that resonated with both die hard and casual fans alike. I watched the card with some friends, most of whom rarely tune into UFC cards or combat sports in general, and they were all clamoring that the Poirier versus Chandler fight was one of the best fights they have ever seen. But while my friends were eagerly munching on wings and my friend’s mom’s biryani, I was slouched with anxiety thinking about the potential outcome for the main event.
The final fight of the night would feature two middleweights (185 pounds) duking it out for the undisputed UFC Middleweight Championship. The champion, Israel Adesanya, was poised to defend his 185 pound belt for the sixth consecutive time against relatively untested UFC newcomer Alex Pereira. To the uninitiated, this was an easy test for the kickboxing ace Adesanya, whose rangy style and elusive footwork led him to a 23-1 record going into the title defense. Pereira was just 6-1, and largely expected to give the champ a kickboxing battle instead of taking the fight to the ground. However, there was a larger narrative in place.
Just several years prior, before either man made the transition into MMA, they were both highly regarded kickboxers. While Adesanya would boast an impressive record, Pereira held accolades and titles in major organizations, and so their collision course was set. They would meet first in 2016, where Pereira claimed a decision victory that many to this day dispute as a win for Adesanya. Regardless, the two would meet again almost a year later, and this time Pereira would take it out of the judges’ hands by delivering a stiffening knock out. Again, this was a fight marred with more controversy, as many felt the referee had stopped a finishing sequence from Adesanya in the early rounds. Following this knockout loss, Adesanya would transition full-time into MMA and rack up an impressive 11-0 record on the Chinese, Australian, and New Zealand regional scenes before being signed to the UFC. Interestingly, Pereira started his MMA career two years before the knockout win, but would not return to it until 2020, already three years after Adesanya had chosen to dedicate himself to it full time. At the point where Pereira returned to MMA, Adesanya was already the UFC Middleweight Champion with two title defenses and a squeaky-clean 20-0 record.
While Adesanya was enjoying the highest of highs, his demons followed him. With the arrival of Pereira into the UFC, fans began speculating a potential matchup between the two, seeing as how Pereira had two wins over the champion. After Pereira scored a knockout win over a relatively unknown UFC opponent Andreas Michailidis, and then a decision over tested brawler Bruno Silva, many felt unsure of the green Pereira going into his fight with the surging Sean Strickland. Strickland, who was a long-time staple of both the welterweight and middleweight divisions in the UFC, was enjoying a career resurgence after moving to 185 pounds, and was expected to be the toughest wrestling puzzle the largely untested Pereira would face. The key to success was Strickland mixing in his, while not Olympic-caliber, above-average wrestling to hold Pereira down for an easy decision, or maybe even a submission win. No such thing happened that fateful night in July of 2022. Strickland would choose to stand with one of the most decorated kickboxers with proven knockout power and would run into the patented Pereira left hook that sent him crashing to the canvas before the referee stopped it. On the same night, Adesanya would defend his belt for the sixth time in an uneventful main event, officially marking his second lap of the division’s top five and leading fans to question what could possibly be left. The answer came in the form of the man who had just brutalized Strickland, and had haunted Adesanya since 2016.
So, the trilogy match was set for UFC 281. The question was who had evolved more, and who could be the more effective kickboxer, since it was expected to largely be a kickboxing fight. That being said, many, myself included, surmised that Adesanya would mix in wrestling and push Pereira up against the cage to at least get him thinking about something more than kickboxing and make him uncomfortable. What ended up happening was largely what I expected, with it being mainly a fight fought standing and at kicking range, with the occasional wrestling and clinching mixed in. However, the once agile Adesanya turned more flat-footed as the rounds went on, and his signature back-against-the-cage defense was melting away as the rounds dragged. Even in the clinch, Adesanya seemed outmuscled and outworked, and his saving grace was his ability to get a couple takedowns mixed in. It seemed that Adesanya had finally met his match at 185 pounds in MMA, with Pereira being both stronger and taller (which is crazy, considering Adesanya is 6’4”), as in the final round he would be knocked out by a boxing combination from Pereira. While it was not a clean knockout as it was in 2017, he was on the brink of being separated from consciousness, as anyone who has ever competed (myself included) will tell you.
As it stands now, Adesanya is 0-3 against Pereira, losing twice in kickboxing, and then once in MMA. On one hand, this is sad to see as an Adesanya fan, as his agile kickboxing style is an outlier in the flat-footed middleweight division and forces the rest of the division to evolve to match his striking. On the other hand, it is a breath of fresh air to have a champion with a long list of potential matchups on the horizon. It is likely that Adesanya receives an instant rematch, as is typically the case for champions that were dominant for so long, but it is hard to gauge whether the rematch will be any different. Some people will always be someone else’s kryptonite, and you can train for 100 years and never come close to beating them. However, what pushes a lot of people to say that Adesanya has a chance to win the rematch lies in the fact that he was ahead in the judges’ scorecards and therefore was on his way to winning the fight if he survived for three more minutes. Why is that every single encounter between these two has been fraught with controversy? I do not know, but I can watch these two fight for the rest of my life and never get tired. Here’s to more trash talking between the two and another nail-biting rematch looming on the horizon. Whatever happens, this is the highest level of striking you will see in MMA, and I urge anyone interested in exploring fighting to watch this banger of a technical fight, as well as the rest of the UFC 281 card.