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As the middleweight champion of the UFC, Alex Pereira has been thinking about his upcoming maneuver. After thrillingly defeating Israel Adesanya in the fifth round to win the 185-pound title in New York, "Poatan" stated in a conversation for MMA Fighting that re-entering the octagon in May would be "ideal," however the challenger has not yet been chosen.
The preferred option, according to Pereira, is a fourth fight against Adesanya, two of which occurred in kickboxing and one in the UFC. However, former champion Robert Whittaker might also be brought up. Whittaker was supposed to face Paulo Costa in an eliminator for the title contender but the bout was off the table due to a failure in negotiation with the Brazilian.
“I see these two guys [next],” Pereira said. “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.”
Before their fight at Madison Square Garden, Adesanya had never dropped a middleweight fight in mixed martial arts, but Pereira isn't interested in fighting again and he won't push for the fourth fight against the Last Stylebender for any lame reason.
“I won’t do anything to hurt Adesanya’s plans and avoid this fight,” he said. “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.”
Adesanya is still unable to capitalize against the newly crowned UFC middleweight champion and he is currently 0-3 versus the Brazilian. But Pereira believes that defeating his longstanding foe in kickboxing would be tougher on his body than coming back to win in the UFC. "Poatan" expressed that he needs to have a strong mentality to challenge a person he has already defeated three times in a row.
“I try to forget what has happened,” Pereira said. “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.”
Alex Pereira has already started to look out for more available options in any case the anticipated fight against Adesanya doesn’t happen. Regardless of facing Robert Whittaker, the Brazilian has shown interest in moving up the division and seeking a revenge for his comrade Glover Teixeira. The Brazilian appeared in the comments section of Hill’s latest Instagram post, which was directed at injured former titleholder Jiri Prochazka, and issued a challenge to “Sweet Dreams”.