Israel Adesanya thinks middleweight fighters should be glad he got rid of Alex Pereira in the said division.
It can be recalled that Poatan made the switch from middleweight to light heavyweight after his loss to a rematch versus The Last Stylebender in April. His entrance to the new division was a success after defeating Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 in July. In that event, the middleweight was won by Roman Kopylov after taking down Claudio Ribeiro. Now, the middleweight is being owned by Sean Strickland, who beat Adesanya via unanimous decision in September. Adesanya suggested that this wouldn’t happen if Poatan is still in middleweight.
“These middleweights can get on their f****** knees and thank me ’cause I got this man out of there. If not, you would have to deal with him over and over and over again, all of you,” Adesanya said. “I doubt any of you would want to f****** fight this guy. I did four times, but I got it done just with one.”
Despite seemingly uplifting Pereira as a dangerous opponent in middleweight, Adesanya said he would be betting on Prochazka in this upcoming bout.
“I’m going with Jiri [Procházka]. No [it doesn’t go the distance]. Five rounds, I don’t think so. Not with this one. Not at light heavyweight. It doesn’t go the distance.”
