Alex Pereira has mocked UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya for his "easy" tennis ball training footage by sparring whilst balancing on a hoverboard.
Pereira, 35, looks to become the first man to beat Adesanya at 185lb in the UFC when they fight on November 12 at Madison Square Garden.
The Brazilian has already beaten Adesanya twice in kickboxing, winning a controversial decision in 2016 before knocking him out in their rematch the following year. Pereira is fighting for a UFC title after just three fights in the promotion, earning himself a shot by knocking out Sean Strickland on the undercard of Adesanya's latest title defence in July.
Adesanya showed off his impressive reaction skills by dodging tennis balls in a recent training video, but Pereira wasn't impressed as he labelled the clip "easy" before replying with a video of him sparring whilst balancing on a hoverboard. “Training with a tennis ball is easy! I want to see him train boxing on a hoverboard," he wrote.
Fans have since reacted to Pereira's video, with one user pointing out that sparring on a hoverboard could actually help train his balance. "All jokes aside that’s actually mad impressive and to be honest probably beneficial for balance," with another commenter adding: "Safe to say that he'll be looking for that left hook the whole fight."
A third user cited Pereira's recent video in which he kicks a football before shooting through it with a bow and arrow, as they wrote: "The bow and arrow, the tennis balls and then the board, it would be a fun buildup to the fight seeing them try to top each other with the unusual trainings and creative exercises."
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Other commenters said the unorthodox footage is something they would expect to see former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson post, as one wrote: "Man this is some Tony Ferguson level of training" with a second agreeing: "Tony gonna do this and say he reinvented his boxing and call out Khabib [Nurmagomedov] again."
Pereira's title fight with Adesanya marks a full circle moment as it will be almost a year to the date he made his UFC debut, also fighting 'Stylebender' in the same arena as his inaugural fight for the promotion. 'Poatan' said he has been watching Adesanya for the past three years as he predicted the pair would fight again despite his two wins against him.
