Alex Pereira Hopes To Train With Israel Adesanya Amid Rivalry

UFC light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has hinted that he might train together with his fierce rival and former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

Alex Pereira who has been pushing for a fifth fight between himself and Israel Adesanya, seems to be attempting to try another route to get to the Nigerian-born Australian fighter after failing to lure his former opponent back into the octagon.

Recently, Pereira decided to reignite his rivalry with Adesanya through Instagram, by posting a video and telling the former middleweight champion to watch it, urging the Nigerian-born fighter never to undervalue other people’s abilities.

The video includes the controversial segment from a previous interview, in which Adesanya asserted that Pereira was a nobody who merely wanted to live off of his kickboxing knockout victory.

Nevertheless, Pereira stated in his caption that he would be happy to train with Adesanya in the future.

The Brazilian kickboxer caption reads: “This is not personal with Israel Adesanya, I would even train with him in the future, but Adesanya gotta watch this video so he will never underestimate someone’s potential again! P.S. Poatan – 2 division champion”.

After defeating Adesanya 2-0 in kickboxing, Pereira faced the Nigerian fighter in the UFC 281 main event to win his first mixed martial arts title. But Adesanya avenged his loss at UFC 287 with a brutal knockout.

Unfortunately, Adesanya, 34, announced publicly that he would be taking a break from the sport after his most recent fight ended in a major upset loss to Sean Strickland.

On the other hand, Pereira has advanced to the light heavyweight division and won two division titles in two different sports (kickboxing and MMA) by defeating Jan Blachowicz and Jiri Prochazka.

After he defeated Prochazka to win the UFC light-heavyweight title, Pereira challenged Adesanya to put an end to their rivalry by holding a third mixed martial arts match, with the winner being determined by lot. But the Nigerian-born Australian fighter seems unready to return from his break.