UFC middleweight Chris Curtis shared some advice for Israel Adesanya on how to beat Alex Pereira in their rematch.
Pereira continues to haunt Adesanya’s career after the Brazilian took out the long-time champ by TKO at UFC 281. The victory moved Pereira to 3-0 over Adesanya, 1-0 in MMA. The previous two wins came in Kickboxing in 2016 and 2017. In the first meeting, Pereira scored a unanimous decision, but in the second, he separated Adesanya from consciousness.
Despite being the man Curtis was chasing, he can’t help but feel bad for the former champion. When speaking with Helen YT Sports, Chris Curtis stated he wasn’t a fan of Adesanya, but having a nemesis in Pereira, who has your number across two disciplines, must be mentally draining.
Chris Curtis sympathies with Israel Adesanya
“I actually feel bad for Izzy like ‘Bro, you have your own personal boogeyman’ Like, how many times can you do everything right,” Chris Curtis said. “He was winning the fight, I though it would’ve been four rounds to one…he was like two minutes from defending his title, and Pereira does it again. Like you got your own personal f*king boogeyman. That is miserable.”
Curtis put himself in Adesanya’s shoes and jokingly added he would have done more than most to get a result over the newly crowned champion.
“[If] you can’t beat him in one-on-one combat, we gotta do a gladiator thing and like stab him or poison him before the fight…If one dude kept pounding me down my entire career and I’m gonna come find you at home,” he pointed out. “I’m settling this with knives I don’t care.”
Pereira’s third victory over Adesanya didn’t come without some controversy. Many believed the stoppage was premature. However, Adesanya said he was content with the stoppage, with his coach, Eugene Bareman confessing it was early in his eyes.
Curtis sides with Adesanya and does feel Mark Goddard should have considered the importance of the fight when making a split-second decision.
Curtis sides on the controversial stoppage
“I didn’t like the stoppage man,” Curtis admitted. “I understand [the ref was] protecting the fighter but…it’s the last round of a five-round title fight, the champion [was] arguably winning the fight, like, yeah we’re worried about the damage, people go to sleep to on every fight card, let him get knocked the f*ck out.”
Nothing is set-in-stone for Adesanya to be granted the immediate rematch. The Kiwi revealing, he would like to take some time off. That leaves Pereira at the top of the mountain, waiting on a worthy challenger.