MMAFighting<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s being forced to fight, he\u2019s the champion. It\u2019s obvious that he cares about the belt.\u201d<\/p>\nAccording to Alex Pereira, he believes Israel Adesanya didn’t want to fight him because he knows how dangerous he is.\u00a0Along with that, Pereira says he’s a much different striker and will pose problems for Adesanya who wants to protect his belt.<\/p>\n
Pereira Says Adesanya Is Mentally Shook<\/h3>\n
\u201cHe knows I\u2019m not like the other guys he fought, otherwise the results would have been different in both times we fought,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cHe knows I\u2019m different, and I\u2019m proving that. I\u2019m showing that in my three UFC fights. I\u2019m being honest here. He doesn\u2019t want this fight. Nobody wants. His team doesn\u2019t want it. People close to him don\u2019t want it because they know the risk. Is he good? Is he the champion? He\u2019s there because he did what he did. Everybody knows my potential and sees my evolution. Right after I got in the UFC he said he would like to fight me maybe after four fights but \u2018calm down\u2019. He wanted [to fight me], but only after I did four fights. Why? He had in his mind I could lose to someone and he would say, \u2018Is that the guy you want me to fight?\u2019<\/p>\n
“I never believed that, but some people did. Others realize now he was bluffing,” Pereira continued. “That\u2019s not what he wants. Right after it was announced that my next fight would be for the belt against him, he and his whole team said it was a bit unfair that I was fighting for the belt because I just got here, that Adesanya did so many fights and I should do the same. Man, I\u2019m just hearing that and taking it as something positive for me. That shows me he pretended he wanted [to fight me] and when I got here, his whole team was against it. That shows all of them, he and his team are mentally shook.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Pereira is coming off a KO win over Sean Strickland in July to earn a title shot.<\/p>\n
What do you make of Alex Pereira claiming Israel Adesanya was forced to take this fight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alex Pereira believes Israel Adesanya didn’t want to fight him. Pereira and Adesanya have fought twice in kickboxing with the Brazilian winning both including one by KO. With that, the two have a history and a bit of a rivalry, and ever since Pereira signed with UFC many fans have wanted to see the pair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":389214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[62650,39449,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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