Alex Pereira knocks out Israel Adesanya in comeback battle
Alex Pereira has knocked out Israel Adesanya from his UFC middleweight championship title to win his eighth professional MMA fight. Adesanya, the Last Stylebender rekindled his feud with the Glory double champ in the main event of UFC 281 at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday morning. The pair had previously battled twice in kickboxing.
Adesanya, 33, entered the year’s penultimate pay-per-view main event aiming to revenge a brutal knockout loss to Pereira in his last kickboxing match five years ago.
But, in the fifth round, in front of a sold-out audience at The World’s Most Famous Arena, he suffered the same fate.
When he slipped into the centre of the octagon, Adesanya was probably up three rounds to one on the scorecards. He tried to recover, but it was too late. Pereira chased Adesanya to the fence and blasted him with punches to the face, startling him and nearly knocking him out.
As Adesanya’s body fell slack, referee Marc Goddard stopped the fight, despite Adesanya’s protest as he tried to regain his composure.
This marks Adesanya’s first defeat in the middleweight class and only his second defeat in MMA
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