I’m too happy today. I’ve not been able to sleep much since last night. Former UFC Middleweight Champion, the Nigerian, Israel Adesanya regained his title in an incredible performance less than 24 hours ago; let me give you a background.
Before last night, the Middleweight champion was a guy named, Alex Pereira. How did he become champion, you ask? He defeated Israel Adesanya in a very disputed technical knockout in round 5 of a fight he was sure to lose. It was an incredible comeback. Why is this all significant? Good question, let me paint the picture.
You see, many years ago before Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira were MMA fighters and UFC champions, they were young aspiring kickboxers. In 2016, Israel Adesanya was becoming a very serious Kickboxing prospects, amidst winning over 20 fights and having only 2 loses, when he met a less experienced Alex Pereira in “Glory of Heroes 1,” in China. The fight was competitive but there was only one winner, or so we thought. The judges awarded Alex Pereira a unanimous decision victory, a decision that surprised the “winner” himself. This began what would become one of the most incredible rivalries in combat sports.
Adesanya went on to win his next 10 or so fights, eventually losing another close, controversial decision in the Glory 37 tournament final to Jason Wilnis. By this time, Adesanya already had one leg out the kickboxing door and one leg in MMA but he had to settle a score with Alex Pereira, who had stolen a previous victory for him.
The rematch was set for April 2017 and Adesanya showed he was the better fighter through the first 2 rounds of the fight. He almost getting a TKO victory in round 2 but the ref stoped the fight and gave Alex a standing 8 count, allowing him to recover. In Round 3, with his back against the wall, down 2 rounds, Alex Pereira knocked out Israel Adesanya COLD in what to that point was Israel’s only loss by knockout. The picture of Israel lying unconscious would become very popular in combat sports circles for years to come.
That was Israel’s last kickboxing fight. He left the sport and focused fully on MMA. His rise in MMA was so incredible, it seemed unreal. He signed to the UFC and made his debut in February 2018, racked up 5 straight wins within a year and became the interim champion by April 2019. He unified the Middleweight Championships in October 2019 and had racked up 5 title defenses by mid 2022. No matter how much success he had in MMA, those 2 kickboxing losses to Alex always loomed large. In that time span, Alex himself realized lots of success, eventually becoming Glory Middleweight Champion (a feat Israel didn’t achieved) and also winning the Glory Light Heavyweight Championship to become the first and only ever Glory simultaneous double champ.
He too transitioned to MMA and by November 2021, he was also in the UFC, a lot of his rise was attributed to his defeats of the champion in another combat disciplined. He moved even faster though the Middleweight division, racking up 3 wins within a year and setting up a rematch with the champion and former foe Israel Adesanya for November 2022.
The story was incredible, the only man to knockout Israel Adesanya had followed him to a new sport with the hope of taking his belt many years later. The fight played out very similar to all their fights, Israel was winning comfortably till the final round where Alex trapped him on the cage and unloaded a flurry of punches till the fight was stopped. I still contend that the stoppage was early but the fight was stopped and Alex became the UFC Middleweight Champion, an incredible story for him and an even faster rise.
It was such a bitter pill to swallow for me as a super fan, and you could tell it was a thorn in the side of Israel Adesanya. That was until yesterday when they met again in an immediate rematch of the Middleweight Championship. For the first time in their fight series, Alex looked very competitive, and perhaps was winning the early exchanges, that is until a minute to go in round 2. He trapped Israel on the cage again and started to unload a flurry of punch combinations, it seemed it was all destined to happen again… but it was a trap. Israel covered up, set up a beautiful overhand right which wobbled the champion, he then landed another overhand right and left hook combination to send his foe down to the canvas and followed him down with a vicious straight right hand before the fight was stopped.
At long last, Israel Adesanya finally got one over his foe. I’m not sure if he was happier than I was, but as I type this, I’m still not over the euphoria of such a sweet and satisfying victory; what a story.
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