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Former UFC champion Alex Pereira suffered a devastating knockout loss to Israel Adesanya at UFC 287, with the latter reclaiming the middleweight championship. After knocking Pereira unconscious, Adesanya flopped onto the mat to mimic the knockout.
Following the fight, Adesanya explained that he was “petty” and trolling Pereira’s son because the kid mocked Adesanya when he was knocked out five years ago.
“I remember the first time [Pereira] knocked me out in Brazil, his son came into the ring and then started to lie dead next to me,” Adesanya said at the post-fight conference. “And I’m like, ‘you f—ing little asshole. I’ll whoop your ass if your dad don’t do it for you.’ So then, yeah, I looked for his kid, and I pointed at him, and I saw him, and I was like, ‘hey, hey, hey’ [motions like he fell] just to remind him.”
After having time to digest the night, Pereira issued a statement where he responded to Adesanya mocking his son. And it is not what you think, because he showed no anger and took it all in stride with a brilliant reaction.
Alex Pereira responds to Israel Adesanya taunting his son after his win at UFC 287 pic.twitter.com/V6A9Zv42td
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) April 11, 2023
“I don’t know if I wouldn’t do the same,” Pereira said. “I can play with him, I’ve always played with him and tease him. It’s something that happened but he … I don’t know … it’s another child. I don’t know what his feeling was, it was seven years ago. He was enduring it, and I saw his joy that he had after the knockout, you know? Because that was his dream, and he made it.
“But we’re comparing him with a child that was five years old at the time, right? I don’t have that mind. Today, he is 12 years old and before the fight I saw that he was being influenced by other people, right? Sometimes even participating in some interviews and some saying, ‘You’re going to do this?’ ‘I’m going to do it again,’ and so on, and he laughed because he’s a kid.
“I think it’s funny. I did that, I knocked him out the night I won the belt and my kid wanted to do the same thing up there. I said to him ‘No, stop, doin’t do it. Stay here and don’t do anything.’ I’m a conscious guy and everything, I’m saying I wouldn’t do it. But if [Adesanya] did it and felt better after doing it, okay, it’s a relief if he thinks it’s better for him. That won’t change anything for me.”
It’s great to see that Pereira took it all in stride, and his reaction should win him over some more fans.
As for what’s next for the former champion, it’s hard to say because Dana White appears to have closed the door on yet another rematch between Pereira and Adesanya. Who knows, maybe a move to light heavyweight could be in order.
You can check out Pereira’s full post-UFC 287 statement below.
